Health Benefits from Nature

Experiences Depend on Dose

Biology 10B
Group :
Sana Aslam
Isabel Bojanini
Lousineh Hartoni
Tung Hoang
Jialiang (Evelyn) Wangliu
Introduction

● Research shows that experience in nature are related to both mental and physical
health of people.
● providing a “visually complex environment” can lead to reduction in stress and mental
fatigue as it is visually pleasant.
● Variation in duration and frequency of exposure to nature influences the health effects
in the long run. Even a short exposure to nature results in a lower blood pressure and
“greater feelings of restoration”. Long term effect remains unexplored
Nature Dose Framework
Results
● Longer nature experiences are linked to higher physical activity and lower
depression and blood pressure
● Higher frequency in nature experiences were a predictor for increased
social cohesion
● Cases of high blood pressure and depression can be attributed to failing to
spend average 30 min a week on green spaces
Discussion
● A positive relationship within the time people engaged in nature experiences and
the benefit in the aspect of social, physical as well as mental health.
● Could save enormous societal costs if people health behavior changes.
○ Australia estimated $12.6 billion AUD for depression
○ U.S. estimated $48 billion USD for hypertension
 Discussion
● Duration and frequency of nature interactions help the four
health outcomes and reduce the percentage of getting
non-communicable diseases.
■ diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity.
● More people undertake some physical activity while visit
green spaces, which including walking and cycling
● Public green space improved social cohesion, which positively
affect with physical and mental wellbeing.

http://grow.spogagafa.com/study-shows-the-desire-for-green-spaces/
 Discussion
● Our measure of nature intensity (vegetation complexity) does not show a cooperative
relationship with the health outcomes. However, other studies found that the
increase in species richness is a crucial factor affect for pleasants enhancement.
● Understand how to improve health outcomes by
exposure nature become critical to the nature
dose-response.

http://hs.umt.edu/politicalcognition/labs/cognitive-complexity.php
Discussion
● There is a decrease of high blood pressure and depression cases when people
spend more than 30 minutes in green space
■ 7% of depression and 9% of high blood pressure

● people with higher nature interactions report better well-being, happiness, and
lower levels of anxiety
Discussion
Interaction with nature has the potential to reduce multiple chronic conditions
that co-occur within one person

The investment in green space is critical to combat the emerging public health
challenges associated with urbanization, such as lung diseases and breathing
problems due to dirty air.
Limitations

● This study used self-report online survey, so there are some limitations such
as the question order can affect responses.

● longitudinal studies, which uses tracking technologies can equip

complementary understanding of nature-dose relationships
Materials and Methods
● surveyed 1538 Brisbane residents 18-70 yrs gather info on health and
experiences of nature- carried out in November 2012. period chosen bc prior
to high summer temp -> outcomes minimum affected by seas condition and
prior to summer holiday period which could affect participation and
measured behaviors.
● Brisbane city has high overall levels of public space and tree
cover-socio-econ. gradient
○ nature outside experiences measured in study likely to be high across
residents-day to day activities
Materials and Methods

● criteria: actual pop, age, sex, income w/in city, addresses spatial zones
reflecting tree cover across city
○ Pearson’s rank test- compare prop of rep w/in dif strat crit against real
pop -> well correlated
● resp provided info on height weight BMI
● IRSD used to measure level of soc econ disadvantage in respond’s
neighborhood.
○ measures person’s connection to nature using Nature Relatedness Scale
Materials and Methods

● Experience of Nature
○ Respondents were asked to report any visit to a place that they consider
“outdoor green space” in past week or describe the location. The
locations were manually geo-located based based on description
provided by respondents.
○ Three main factors of dose nature; Duration, Frequency of experience
and Nature Intensity was measured based on self reports and remote
sensing analysis.
Materials and Methods

○ Nature Dose questions were asked before health questions.

○ Average duration was calculated based on self-reported time spent during
each visit and selected from a time category
○ Frequency is correlated with duration on time scale and was estimated
based on the respondent’s self-reported frequency of visits across a year with
selection from categories: never; once a year; once every 3 months; 2 to 3
times a month; once a month; once or more per week.
Materials and Methods

○ Nature intensity was generated by the vegetation complexity within the most
complex map-able green space each respondent visited .77% only visited
one or two green space locations. Analyses were limited to those who visited
green space that could be geo-located, and had established boundaries within
the Brisbane City limits. Complexity was measured using LiDAR-derived
maps.
Materials and Methods

Health Response Measures: Respondents provided information on four health

outcomes:
● Mental Health which was measured based on components of
Depression,Anxiety and Stress Scale. Respondents answered with category
of 0 no depression or 1 indicating mild or worse depression state.
● Physical Health : Respondent answered whether they are under treatment for
high blood pressure coding as 0 no treatment, 1 for treatment.
Materials and Methods

Health Response Measures:

● Social Health was estimated based on questions that determine the levels of
trust, reciprocal exchange within communities, and general community
cohesion. All scores across obtained from these questions were averaged.
● Health Behavior in which Respondents provided a self-report of physical
activity, number of days (0 to 7) they exercised for 30 minutes or more .
Statistical Analyses

All analyses were performed in the software package R. This experimental

approach was used to study the association between each health response and
potential predictors such as socio-demographic variables,BMI,physical activity
and three nature experience measures. Linear models were designed for high
blood pressure,depression, social cohesion and physical activities. Four predictor
models were used in association with nature dose three measure factors
individually to show the effect of nature dose on four health outcomes.
Conclusion

● The survey conducted is an experimental approach to highlight the nature

dose influence on health outcomes.
● Duration, frequency of green space visits and intensity of green spaces are
correlating with reduce high blood pressure and depression.
● Suggesting more green spaces will improve social health and can be a huge
help to public health budget savings.