Mental Health Benefits of Long-Term Exposure to Residential Green and Blue Spaces: A Systematic Review

Mireia Gascon, Margarita Triguero-Mas, David Martínez, Payam Dadvand, Joan Forns, Antoni Plasència and Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen
Additional contact information
Mireia Gascon: ISGlobal, Barcelona Ctr. Int. Health Res. (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08036, Spain
Margarita Triguero-Mas: Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB), Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL). Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
David Martínez: Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB), Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL). Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Payam Dadvand: Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB), Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL). Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Joan Forns: Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB), Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL). Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Antoni Plasència: ISGlobal, Barcelona Ctr. Int. Health Res. (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic-Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08036, Spain
Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen: Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB), Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL). Doctor Aiguader, 88, 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-26

Abstract: Many studies conducted during the last decade suggest the mental health benefits of green and blue spaces. We aimed to systematically review the available literature on the long-term mental health benefits of residential green and blue spaces by including studies that used standardized tools or objective measures of both the exposures and the outcomes of interest. We followed the PRISMA statement guidelines for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analysis. In total 28 studies were included in the systematic review. We found limited evidence for a causal relationship between surrounding greenness and mental health in adults, whereas the evidence was inadequate in children. The evidence was also inadequate for the other exposures evaluated (access to green spaces, quality of green spaces, and blue spaces) in both adults and children. The main limitation was the limited number of studies, together with the heterogeneity regarding exposure assessment. Given the increase in mental health problems and the current rapid urbanization worldwide, results of the present systematic review should be taken into account in future urban planning. However, further research is needed to provide more consistent evidence and more detailed information on the mechanisms and the characteristics of the green and blue spaces that promote better mental health. We provide recommendations for future studies in order to provide consistent and evidence-based recommendations for policy makers.

Keywords: green spaces; blue spaces; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (113)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/4/4354/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/4/4354/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:4:p:4354-4379:d:48538

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().