Parks and Green Areas Are Associated with Decreased Risk for Hyperlipidemia.

Hye-Jin Kim,Jin-Young Min,Kyoung-Bok Min,Hyun-Jin Kim

doi:10.3390/ijerph13121205

Hye-Jin Kim, Jin-Young Min + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13121205

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Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the association between parks and green areas and hyperlipidemia in adults with groups stratified by moderate physical activity as a behavioral modification using the 2009 Korean Community Health Survey data and 212,584 participants enrolled in this study. The geographical codes of study participants were all matched on the basis of the amount of parks and green areas in each administrative district. Compared with participants living in the highest quartile of parks and green areas (Quartile 4), those living in the lowest quartile of green and park area (Quartile 1) were at an increased risk of physician-diagnosed hyperlipidemia and hyperlipidemia currently under treatment. Participants in the lowest quartile of parks and green areas were likely not to engage in any moderate physical activity. After classifying hyperlipidemia risk depending on the presence of moderate physical activity, those participating in moderate physical activity were less likely to have hyperlipidemia in all quartiles of parks and green areas than those not engaging in moderate physical activity. We found that parks and green areas were associated with decreased hyperlipidemia risk. Physical activity, which may benefit from the presence of parks and green areas, may reduce hyperlipidemia risk.

Highlights

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major public health problem and a leading cause of death and disability worldwide [1]
We found that the proportion of participants who are older (≥60 years), married, have blue-collar jobs, have lower level of education, lower income (≤2000), low self-reported stress, and perform highest level of moderate activity were likely to live in the highest quartile (Quartile 4) of parks and green areas
Participants living in the lowest quartiles of parks and green areas had the highest levels of hyperlipidemia, for both those physician-diagnosed and those currently receiving treatment

Summary

Introduction

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major public health problem and a leading cause of death and disability worldwide [1]. Recent reports have suggested that parks and other green environments are beneficial for cardiovascular health [2,3,4,5]. Many studies have showed that exposure or accessibility to a green space was associated with decreased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and circulatory mortality [6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. The benefits of parks and green spaces in mitigating behavioral and environmental risks of CVD include increased physical activity, alleviated psychosocial stress, increased social interaction, and reduced exposures to air pollution, noise, and heat waves [2,3,4,5,13,14]. People living in greener environments had reduced risk for intermediate clinical variables of CVD, such as diabetes [15,16] and high blood pressure (BP) [17]

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