Green spaces reduce health gap between rich and poor -- The Lancet
A bit of greenery near our homes can cut the "health gap" between rich and poor, say researchers from two Scottish universities.
The authors of the article in the British medical journal The Lancet called for planning authorities to consider making more green spaces available to improve the health and wellbeing of their residents.
Read more here (from BBC News).
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A related article: "Urban planning needs green rethink" by Martha Schwartz:
"The focus on greening homes and offices is ignoring the wider landscape of our towns and cities... 21st Century urban spaces must undergo a green revolution."
Read that article here, with comments from around the world.
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Look here for a study of the "Impact of Urban Forestry Development on Domestic Violence. It builds on earlier work (2001) by Sullivan and Kuo at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (download a slide presentation on that work from here).
Erwin (on tips from Bill Royds, Sol Shuster and Ann Coffey)
10 November 2008
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Green spaces narrow health gap between rich and poor
The rich live longer than the poor but the gap narrows substantially in cities where there are plentiful parks, woods and playing fields, according to a study that appears in Saturday's issue of The Lancet. Researchers looked at mortality records and income data for 366,000 people in England who were below retirement age in the first half of this decade, and matched these figures to location. In the least "green" areas, the difference in the death rate between rich and poor was nearly twice that of places where recreational space was abundant.
The difference was even bigger when it came to deaths from circulatory disease. The authors, led by Richard Mitchell of the University of Glasgow, say these findings should be borne in mind by urban planners. "Environments that promote good health might be crucial in the fight to reduce health inequalities," they write.
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anasmith
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