Visiting Green Spaces Often Deters Prescription Drug Use

They drew on the responses of 16,000 randomly selected residents of Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa, to the Helsinki Capital Region Environmental Health Survey in 2015-16. These three cities make up the largest urban area in Finland.

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The survey gathered information on how city dwellers, aged at least 25, experience residential green and blue spaces within a 1 km radius of their home.

Respondents were also asked to report their use of prescribed meds—drugs for anxiety, insomnia, and depression, collectively known as psychotropic drugs; high blood pressure and asthma drugs—if applicable, for periods ranging from within the past week up to more than a year ago or never.

They were also asked how often they spent time, or exercised outdoors, in green spaces, during May and September, with options ranging from never to 5 or more times a week.

And they were asked whether they could see green or blue spaces from any of their windows at home, and if so, how often they took in these views, with options ranging from seldom to often.
Green areas were defined as forests, gardens, parks, castle parks, cemeteries, zoos, herbaceous vegetation associations such as natural grassland and moors, and wetlands. Blue areas were defined as seas, lakes, and rivers.

More Time in Green Spaces Is Linked With Less Use of Prescription Drugs

Potentially influential factors, including health behaviors, outdoor air pollution and noise, and household income and educational attainment were also considered. The final analysis included approximately 6000 participants who provided complete information.

This showed that the amount of residential green and blue spaces, or views of them from home, weren’t associated with the use of prescription meds for mental health, insomnia, high blood pressure, or asthma.

Compared with less than one weekly visit, visiting 3-4 times weekly was associated with 33% lower odds of using mental health meds, 36% lower odds of using blood pressure meds, and 26% lower odds of using asthma meds. The equivalent figures for visiting at least 5 times a week were, respectively, 22%, 41%, and 24% lower.

These observed associations were weakened when weight (BMI) was factored in, particularly for asthma meds, as obesity is a known risk factor for asthma. The effects of visiting green spaces were also stronger among those reporting the lowest annual household income. But overall, the associations found didn’t depend on household income and educational attainment.

This is an observational study, so can’t establish cause and effect. No information was available on illness severity, and better health may enable a person to spend more time outdoors.

Mounting scientific evidence supporting the health benefits of nature exposure is likely to increase the supply of high-quality green spaces in urban environments and promote their active use. This might be one way to improve health and welfare in cities.

Source: Eurekalert