Abstract
This study investigated the effect of proximity to city parks on blood pressure categories during the first trimester of pregnancy. This cross-sectional study included 3,416 female residents of the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, who were enrolled in the FP7 PHENOTYPE project study. The women were classified into four blood pressure categories: optimal, normal, high-normal blood pressure, and hypertension. Multinomial regression models were used to investigate the association between three women’s groups with respect to the residence distances from city parks (300, >300–1,000, and >1,000 m) and four blood pressure categories. When using the optimal blood pressure as the reference group, the crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) for normal blood pressure and for high-normal blood pressure proved to be statistically significantly higher after the inclusion of the selected covariates into the regression analysis. The probability of normal blood pressure increased by 9%, and that of high-normal blood pressure—by 14% for every 300 m increase in the distance to green spaces. The findings of this study suggest a beneficial impact of nearby city parks on blood pressure amongst 20- to 45-year-old women. This relationship has important implications for the prevention of hypertension and the reduction of hypertension-related morbidity.
Highlights
Environmental exposures have long been suspected to have an independent influence on health outcomes, in terms of cardiovascular disease and hypertension—the second leading cause of chronic diseases worldwide [1,2,3,4]
We explored whether the associations of city park proximity differed in four blood pressure categories among the studied women, while controlling for confounding variables
The women who participated in the study were predominantly Lithuanian by their ethnic origin (97.4%), and were non-smokers (93.2%)
Summary
Environmental exposures have long been suspected to have an independent influence on health outcomes, in terms of cardiovascular disease and hypertension—the second leading cause of chronic diseases worldwide [1,2,3,4]. Blood pressure (BP) is affected by many environmental factors, including the living environment, social status, ambient temperature, altitude, noise, and air pollutants [5,6,7,8,9]. While most published studies have found that cardiovascular morbidity and hypertension may be related to the level of air pollution or neighbourhood quality [10,11,12,13,14,15,16], these findings are not consistent with respect to the role of environmental exposures and the magnitude of the effect. Reduction of air pollution in green areas has been suggested as a possible mechanism of the beneficial effects of green space [10]. Residence in proximity to green spaces may have benefits for the health-related behaviour of urban residents—such as increased physical activity and social contacts [17,18], or psychological restoration and stress reduction [19,20,21]
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