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Study Links Green Space to Reduction in Health Disparities
A study published in the November 8 issue of the Lancet finds that health disparities between the rich and poor are much narrower in areas with ample green space, Reuters reports. Researchers from the University of Glasgow in Scotland studied nearly 41 million people living in England below retirement age and the death records of more than 360,000 individuals to measure the association between exposure to green space and income, all-cause mortality and cause-specific death between 2001 and 2005. They found that the gap in all-cause mortality between the highest- and lowest-income residents was about half as large in areas with ample green space as the gap in areas with the least green space. Speculating that green space may reduce health disparities by enabling residents to become physically active and reduce stress, the researchers concluded that "environments that promote good health might be crucial in the fight to reduce health inequalities." An editorial accompanying the study, meanwhile, says the study "offers valuable evidence that green space does more than pretty up a neighborhood; it appears to have real effects on health inequality, of a kind that politicians and health authorities should take seriously." (Reuters/Yahoo News, 11/7/08; HealthDay/Yahoo! News, 11/6/08; Mitchell et al., Lancet, 11/8/08 [subscription required])