BACKGROUND: Greenspace has been associated with health benefits in many contexts. An important pathway may be through outdoor physical activity. We use a novel approach to examine the link between greenspace microenvironments and outdoor physical activity levels in the HEALS study conducted in Edinburgh (UK), the Netherlands, and Athens and Thessaloniki (Greece). METHODS: Using physical activity tracker recordings, 118 HEALS participants with young children were classified with regard to daily minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA); 60 were classified with regard to the metabolic equivalent task (MET)-minutes for each of the 1014 active trips they made. Greenspace indicators were generated for Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), tree cover density (TCD), and green land use (GLU). We employed linear mixed-effects models to analyse (1) daily MVPA in relation to greenspace within 300 m and 1000 m of residential addresses and (2) trip MET-minutes in relation to average greenspace within a 50 m buffer of walking/cycling routes. Models were adjusted for activity, walkability, bluespace, age, sex, car ownership, dog ownership, season, weekday/weekend day, and local meteorology. RESULTS: There was no clear association between MVPA-minutes and any residential greenspace measure. For example, in fully adjusted models, a 10 percentage point increase in NDVI within 300 m of home was associated with a daily increase of 1.14 (95% CI - 0.41 to 2.70) minutes of MVPA. However, we did find evidence to indicate greenspace markers were positively linked to intensity and duration of activity: in fully adjusted models, 10 percentage point increases in trip NDVI, TCD, and GLU were associated with increases of 10.4 (95% CI: 4.43 to 16.4), 10.6 (95% CI: 4.96 to 16.3), and 3.36 (95% CI: 0.00 to 6.72) MET-minutes, respectively. The magnitude of associations with greenspace tended to be greater for cycling. CONCLUSIONS: More strenuous or longer walking and cycling trips occurred in environments with more greenspace, but levels of residential greenspace did not have a clear link with outdoor MVPA. To build on our research, we suggest future work examine larger, more diverse populations and investigate the influence of greenspace for trip purpose and route preference.
BACKGROUND: Greenspace has been associated with health benefits in many contexts. An important pathway may be through outdoor physical activity. We use a novel approach to examine the link between greenspace microenvironments and outdoor physical activity levels in the HEALS study conducted in Edinburgh (UK), the Netherlands, and Athens and Thessaloniki (Greece). METHODS: Using physical activity tracker recordings, 118 HEALS participants with young children were classified with regard to daily minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA); 60 were classified with regard to the metabolic equivalent task (MET)-minutes for each of the 1014 active trips they made. Greenspace indicators were generated for Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), tree cover density (TCD), and green land use (GLU). We employed linear mixed-effects models to analyse (1) daily MVPA in relation to greenspace within 300 m and 1000 m of residential addresses and (2) trip MET-minutes in relation to average greenspace within a 50 m buffer of walking/cycling routes. Models were adjusted for activity, walkability, bluespace, age, sex, car ownership, dog ownership, season, weekday/weekend day, and local meteorology. RESULTS: There was no clear association between MVPA-minutes and any residential greenspace measure. For example, in fully adjusted models, a 10 percentage point increase in NDVI within 300 m of home was associated with a daily increase of 1.14 (95% CI - 0.41 to 2.70) minutes of MVPA. However, we did find evidence to indicate greenspace markers were positively linked to intensity and duration of activity: in fully adjusted models, 10 percentage point increases in trip NDVI, TCD, and GLU were associated with increases of 10.4 (95% CI: 4.43 to 16.4), 10.6 (95% CI: 4.96 to 16.3), and 3.36 (95% CI: 0.00 to 6.72) MET-minutes, respectively. The magnitude of associations with greenspace tended to be greater for cycling. CONCLUSIONS: More strenuous or longer walking and cycling trips occurred in environments with more greenspace, but levels of residential greenspace did not have a clear link with outdoor MVPA. To build on our research, we suggest future work examine larger, more diverse populations and investigate the influence of greenspace for trip purpose and route preference.
Authors: Jeanette I Candelaria; James F Sallis; Terry L Conway; Brian E Saelens; Lawrence D Frank; Donald J Slymen Journal: J Phys Act Health Date: 2011-09-12
Authors: Peter James; Jaime E Hart; J Aaron Hipp; Jonathan A Mitchell; Jacqueline Kerr; Philip M Hurvitz; Karen Glanz; Francine Laden Journal: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev Date: 2017-02-14 Impact factor: 4.254
Authors: Barbara E Ainsworth; William L Haskell; Stephen D Herrmann; Nathanael Meckes; David R Bassett; Catrine Tudor-Locke; Jennifer L Greer; Jesse Vezina; Melicia C Whitt-Glover; Arthur S Leon Journal: Med Sci Sports Exerc Date: 2011-08 Impact factor: 5.411
Authors: Keith M Diaz; David J Krupka; Melinda J Chang; James Peacock; Yao Ma; Jeff Goldsmith; Joseph E Schwartz; Karina W Davidson Journal: Int J Cardiol Date: 2015-03-04 Impact factor: 4.164
Authors: Basile Chaix; Yan Kestens; Dustin T Duncan; Ruben Brondeel; Julie Méline; Tarik El Aarbaoui; Bruno Pannier; Juan Merlo Journal: Am J Epidemiol Date: 2016-09-22 Impact factor: 4.897
Authors: Miranda Loh; Dimosthenis Sarigiannis; Alberto Gotti; Spyros Karakitsios; Anjoeka Pronk; Eelco Kuijpers; Isabella Annesi-Maesano; Nour Baiz; Joana Madureira; Eduardo Oliveira Fernandes; Michael Jerrett; John W Cherrie Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2017-04-18 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Mireia Gascon; Thomas Götschi; Audrey de Nazelle; Esther Gracia; Albert Ambròs; Sandra Márquez; Oriol Marquet; Ione Avila-Palencia; Christian Brand; Francesco Iacorossi; Elisabeth Raser; Mailin Gaupp-Berghausen; Evi Dons; Michelle Laeremans; Sonja Kahlmeier; Julian Sánchez; Regine Gerike; Esther Anaya-Boig; Luc Int Panis; Mark Nieuwenhuijsen Journal: Environ Health Perspect Date: 2019-09-18 Impact factor: 9.031
Authors: Valkiria Amaya; Thibauld Moulaert; Luc Gwiazdzinski; Nicolas Vuillerme Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-02-05 Impact factor: 3.390