Natural Outdoor Environments And Physical Activity Engagement

Abstract

Introduction: Existing evidence shows that contact with natural outdoor environments (NOE) benefits human health and well-being. Various mechanisms have been suggested to explain this association, including increase of physical activity. Several studies have investigated the association between physical activity and exposure to green spaces. However, the only that have used objective measures of physical activity have focused on children and none have investigated blue spaces. We explored the association between residential closeness to NOE and physical activity engagement. We also explored the percentage of physical activity performed in NOE. Methods: A total of 400 adults from four different European cities were monitored for a week. We monitored them using a smartphone-based system called CalFit to obtain physical activity and positioning. We used GIS to characterise residential exposure to natural outdoor environments (separately for greenery, green and blue spaces) and also to determine locations where physical activity was performed. Results: After adjusting for sociodemographic data, no statistically significant association was found between residential closeness to NOE and physical activity engagement. However, slight indications were found of residential closeness to NOE being associated with higher percentages of physical activity performed in natural outdoor environments. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that NOE could benefit human health and well-being due to an increase of the proportion of physical activity performed in NOE. This would indicate, as others have suggested previously, that other mechanisms may play a role as well explaining the beneficial effects of NOE on human health and well-being.