A long-term study of adults living in Taiwan shows that people exposed to green spaces around their living areas develop high blood pressure (hypertension) less often than those living in more urbanized areas.
- A study carried out over 15 years on more than 120,000 people shows that living close to green spaces reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure.
- Specifically, each 0.1 point increase in the neighborhood greenness index was associated with a 24% reduction in the risk of developing this blood pressure disorder.
- “Our results reinforced the importance of neighborhood greenery in supporting health,” concludes the group of experts, who now wish to carry out further research to understand where this association between greenery and hypertension comes from.
In Canada, Australia, and even the United Kingdom, there are what doctors call “natural prescriptions”. To treat a disorder, health professionals advise their patients to spend more time outside, in contact with a natural environment. And for good reason, numerous studies have highlighted the benefits of the great outdoors: stronger bones for children, a slowdown in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases for the elderly, and even slower aging of the body. when we live near green spaces… To this list – much longer than these examples cited – is added a new study published at the beginning of March in review Environmental Health Perspectiveswhich shows an association between people living in green areas and a lower risk of developing high blood pressure (hypertension), a condition responsible for a large number of premature deaths worldwide.
HTA and green spaces: more than 120,000 people studied over 15 years
“There are few studies on the health effects of long-term exposure to neighborhood greenery in a longitudinal context, particularly in densely populated Asian countries.”, explain in the preamble the authors of the research.
To carry out their work, they studied the medical data of 123,537 volunteers living in Taiwan, between 2001 and 2016. A vegetation index based on satellite images of the small island state located to the east of China was created to estimate the greenery of the neighborhoods. The researchers then used the principle of the Cox model to study the association between the greenness of the volunteers’ living space and incident hypertension. “Mediation analyzes were performed to examine whether the association was explained by air pollution, leisure-time physical exercise, or body mass index (BMI).”, add the scientists.
Green spaces have a positive impact on blood pressure
Result: people who lived in a greener neighborhood had less risk of developing hypertension.with risk reports and a confidence level of 95%”. Specifically, each 0.1 point increase in the neighborhood greenness index was associated with a 24% reduction in the risk of developing this blood pressure disorder. The analyzes also revealed that this association was more marked in men than in women, and in people with a level of education above high school. “This association was slightly mediated by BMI but not by air pollution or leisure-time exercise”, add the authors. Indeed, their discovery also suggests that a BMI that is too high could attenuate the beneficial effects of exposure to greenery.
“Our results reinforced the importance of neighborhood greenery in supporting health”, concludes the group of experts who now wish to carry out further research to understand where this association between greenery and hypertension comes from.