142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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297481
Relationship between visibility of urban green and blue space and mental health: Evidence from the capital city of New Zealand

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

Amber Pearson, PhD , Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand
Daniel Nutsford , University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Simon Kingham, PhD , University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Femke Reitsma , University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Background: As urbanization escalates globally, urban neighbourhood features which improve physical and, more recently, mental health are of growing importance. One area of exploration is the role of visibility of green/blue space.

Objective: To quantify visual exposure to green/blue space using novel spatial methodologies and to investigate whether visibility was associated with psychological stress (K-10) in a national adult sample.

Methods: Novel visibility measurements were created for blue/green space to account for the distance, slope, aspect and relative elevation of visible areas from each population-weighted neighbourhood viewpoint. We fitted separate cluster robust linear regression models for K-10 scores and visibility measures, adjusted for age, sex, personal income, and neighbourhood population density, crime and deprivation.

Results:

We did not detect a significant association between total green space visibility and K-10 scores. By distance bands, we found that green space visibility only at distances 3-6km and 6-15km were associated with decreased psychological stress (β = -21, p = 0.01 and β = -0.15, p = 0.06). For blue space, we found increased visibility was associated with decreased psychological stress (β = -0.32, p <0.001). Personal income (in all models), neighbourhood deprivation and population density (in several models) also exhibited significant independent effects on K-10 scores.

Conclusion:

These results suggest that increased visibility of blue space generally and of distant green space have a salutogenic effect and may play a role in psychological stress reduction.

Learning Areas:

Environmental health sciences
Epidemiology
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Assess visual exposure to green/blue space using novel spatial methodologies and to investigate whether visibility was associated with psychological stress (K-10) in a national adult sample.

Keyword(s): Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have served as the deputy director the GeoHealth Laboratory and conducted health geographic research on several topics including greenspace and mental health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.