title: Neighborhood greenspace and health in a large urban center.
abstract: Studies have shown that natural environments can enhance health and here we build upon that work by examining the associations between comprehensive greenspace metrics and health. We focused on a large urban population center (Toronto, Canada) and related the two domains by combining high-resolution satellite imagery and individual tree data from Toronto with questionnaire-based self-reports of general health perception, cardio-metabolic conditions and mental illnesses from the Ontario Health Study. Results from multiple regressions and multivariate canonical correlation analyses suggest that people who live in neighborhoods with a higher density of trees on their streets report significantly higher health perception and significantly less cardio-metabolic conditions (controlling for socio-economic and demographic factors). We find that having 10 more trees in a city block, on average, improves health perception in ways comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $10,000 and moving to a neighborhood with $10,000 higher median income or being 7 years younger. We also find that having 11 more trees in a city block, on average, decreases cardio-metabolic conditions in ways comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $20,000 and moving to a neighborhood with $20,000 higher median income or being 1.4 years younger.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kardan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gozdyra
authors.affiliation: Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Bratislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Misic
authors.affiliation: The David Suzuki Foundation, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Faisal
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Moola
authors.affiliation: Translational Health Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
authors.forename: Lyle J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Palmer
authors.affiliation: Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Tomáš
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Paus
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA [2] Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology, and Human Behavior, University of Chicago.
authors.forename: Marc G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Berman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult