green spaces can reduce health inequality between social classes

A Britain’s study was published in special issue of The Lancet, which focuses on social and environmental factors of public health. Dr. Richard Mitchell, of the University of Glasgow, and his colleagues made an argument that health inequalities between rich and poor groups are much lower in areas that have lots of green spaces, such as parks, forests and playing fields.

Mitchell and his team noted that previous studies have shown that present to the natural environment, or so-called green space, has an independent effect on health and health-related behaviors. They examined whether income-related health disparities would be less pronounced in populations with greater access to green space.

They looked at the almost 41 million people in England below retirement age and obtained individual death records for 366,348 people to determine the association between exposure to green space, income, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific death (circulatory disease, lung cancer and suicide) from 2001 to 2005.

The study result revealed that health inequalities related to income deprivation in all-cause mortality and mortality from circulatory diseases were lower in populations living in the greener areas. In areas with the least green space, the health gap between the richest and poorest people was about half as large as that in the greenest areas -- an incident rate ratio (IRR) of 1.93 in the least green and 1.43 in the most green. IRR is a measure of how much higher the rate of death is among the poorest, when compared with that among the richest. The difference in IRR for circulatory disease was even larger - 2.19 in the least green areas and 1.54 in the most green. However, the amount of green space had no effect on deaths caused by lung cancer or suicide.

Evidence suggests that green environments which also promote or enhance beneficial physical activities may reduce risk of death from circulatory disease. Populations that are exposed to the greenest environments have lowest levels of health inequality related to income deprivation. ”Physical environments that promote good health might be crucial to reduce socioeconomic health inequalities,” Mitchell and colleagues concluded.

The study offers an idea in depth, which social welfare departments, health authorities and city planning decision-makers should consider green spaces in a serious way. The physical environment of residential areas could be important for risk of circulatory disease. The effect of green environments is not only based on aesthetic or leisure, but also on improvement of citizen’s health and diminution of social inequality. When we try to establish a completed social welfare system for deprived group, the restorative values of natural spaces should be included in our consideration. The network of greenway or green space system which increases opportunities to access nature could be viewed as another approach to improve the well-being of lower income group and to eliminate the basic disparity of different social classes.

Mitchell, R. and F. Popham (2008). Effect of Exposure to Natural Environment on Health Inequalities: An Observational Population. Lancet, 372, 1655–1660.