Abstract
Researchers interested in the relationships between place and health have been slow to incorporate a life course perspective, probably due to the lack of readily available historical environmental data. This hinders the identification of causal relationships. It also restricts our understanding as to whether there are accumulative effects over the life course and if there are critical periods in people’s lives when places are particularly pertinent. This study considers the feasibility of constructing longitudinal data on the availability of urban green space. The suitability of various historical and contemporary data sources is considered, including paper maps, aerial photographs and tabular land use data. Measures of urban green space are created for all neighbourhoods across the Edinburgh region of Scotland at various points during the past 100 years. We demonstrate that it is feasible to develop such measures, but there are complex issues involved in doing so. We also test the utility of the measures via an analysis of how accessibility to green space might alter over the life course of both people, and their residential neighbourhoods. The findings emphasise the potential for utilising historical data to significantly enhance understanding of the relationships between nature and health, and between health and place more generally. We encourage researchers to use data from other locations to consider including a longitudinal perspective to examine relationships between people’s health and their environment.
Highlights
There is growing international evidence that contact with, or access to, nature or green space may have beneficial implications for physiological and psychological health
A recent systematic review of the relationship between objectively measured access to greenspace and obesity related outcomes concluded that a majority (68%) of papers demonstrated a positive or weak association between greenspace and obesity-related health indicators, the findings were inconsistent across studies [4]
Our study has considered the feasibility of incorporating measures of green space into life course epidemiology, and examined the associated conceptual and technical challenges of gathering data about places to do so
Summary
There is growing international evidence that contact with, or access to, nature or green space may have beneficial implications for physiological and psychological health. Thematic and systematic reviews of observational and experimental studies provide tentative support for a connection between green space and a range of health outcomes including physical activity (and related outcomes), mental health and wellbeing, and perceived general health [1,2,3]. A recent systematic review of the relationship between objectively measured access to greenspace and obesity related outcomes (physical activity, weight status and health conditions related to elevated weight) concluded that a majority (68%) of papers demonstrated a positive or weak association between greenspace and obesity-related health indicators, the findings were inconsistent across studies [4]. Public Health 2016, 13, 331; doi:10.3390/ijerph13030331 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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