Green space as a buffer between stressful life events and health.

By A. E. van den Berg, Jolanda Maas, Robert A. Verheij, Peter P. Groenewegen. Social Science & Medicine (1967), 2010

1,107 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study investigates whether the presence of green space can attenuate negative health impacts of stressful life events. Individual-level data on health and socio-demographic characteristics were drawn from a representative two-stage sample of 4529 Dutch respondents to the second Dutch National Survey of General Practice (DNSGP-2), conducted in 2000-2002. Health measures included: (1) the number of health complaints in the last 14 days; (2) perceived mental health (measured by the GHQ-12); and (3) a single item measure of perceived general health ranging from 'excellent' to 'poor'. Percentages of green space in a 1-km and 3-km radius around the home were derived from the 2001 National Land cover Classification database (LGN4). Data were analysed using multilevel regression analysis, with GP practices as the group-level units. All analyses were controlled for age, gender, income, education level, and level of urbanity. The results show that the relationships of stressful life events with number of health complaints and perceived general health were significantly moderated by amount of green space in a 3-km radius. Respondents with a high amount of green space in a 3-km radius were less affected by experiencing a stressful life event than respondents with a low amount of green space in this radius. The same pattern was observed for perceived mental health, although it was marginally significant. The moderating effects of green space were found only for green space within 3 km, and not for green space within 1 km of residents' homes, presumably because the 3-km indicator is more affected by the presence of larger areas of green space, that are supposed to sustain deeper forms of restoration. These results support the notion that green space can provide a buffer against the negative health impact of stressful life events.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Plant Science, Speech and Hearing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/81fe036bf5795a0135ab993dd58daf933176f7b3

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Citations in the corpus

The value of Twitter data for determining the emotional responses of people to urban green spaces: A case study and critical evaluation (2019, background): “In urban areas, stressors such as noise and crowding are key motivators encouraging individuals to seek out contact with more natural environments (Hartig and Staats, 2006; van den Berg et al, 2010).”
Nature and health. (2014, background): “In a Dutch study, the relationships between stressful life events in the previous three months and both health complaints and perceived general health were weaker among those with more green space within 3 km of the home (130).”
Would You Be Happier Living in a Greener Urban Area? A Fixed-Effects Analysis of Panel Data (2013, methodology): “Second, previous research focused on the relationship between local-area green space and mental distress, for instance by using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ; e.g., de Vries et al., 2003; Maas, van Dillen, Verheij, & Groenewegen, 2009; van den Berg et al., 2010).”
Health benefits of green spaces in the living environment: A systematic review of epidemiological studies (2015, background): “…used overlapping but smaller, samples of the same study population and the same measures of green spaces were excluded: two studies on perceived mental health, and five studies on perceived general health (de Vries et al., 2013; Maas et al., 2008; Mitchell et al., 2011; van den Berg et al., 2010).”
Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature (2013, background): “negative health impacts of stressful life events [129], and improve health overall and reduce income related health inequalities [130].”