![]() ![]() Howard Frumkin, a senior vice president at Trust for Public Land and coeditor of Making Healthy Places, says that parks and green spaces have “public health superpowers,” adding that park administrators and health professionals should think of parks as part of a holistic public health strategy. ![]() These patterns hold even after controlling for race/ethnicity, income, age, and population density.ĭr. In the top 25 ParkScore cities, people are on average 9 percent less likely to suffer from poor mental health, and 21 percent less likely to be physically inactive than those in lower- ranked cities (Table 1). ![]() From this analysis, we know that cities with the highest ParkScore rankings are healthier places to live. One of the motivations for publishing this index is to raise awareness of the superpowers of parks to address some of the most complex problems facing cities today, including health challenges such as rising obesity rates, mental health problems, and loneliness. The extensive evidence converges on the same conclusion: being outdoors, especially outside in green spaces, is good for our health.įor over a decade, Trust for Public Land has published the annual ParkScore index, a ranking of the park systems in the 100 most populous U.S. Other studies have looked at long-term outcomes: body weight, cardiovascular disease risk, life expectancy. Hundreds of studies across the globe have examined exactly what happens to hormone levels, heart rate, mood, ability to concentrate, and other physiological and psychological measures when we are immersed, even briefly, in the natural world. But what has come into focus in recent years are the many tangible health benefits, both physical and mental, that spending time in nature can yield. Leaves and grass, birdsong and breezes, the smell of soil as it stirs to life in spring-all leave us feeling refreshed and energized. Many of us have experienced the pleasures of taking a walk in nature or simply sitting beneath a tree on a beautiful day. ![]() In 26 of the cities surveyed, a healthcare institution is funding, staffing, or referring patients to health programs in parks as part of efforts to improve patient and community health.
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