Speaker
Description
Urban living conditions pose a threat to human health and wellbeing, confronting people of all ages with harmful influences like air or noise pollution.
This study analyzes the impact of nature experience on four human health outcomes. Longitudinal data was obtained through the deep-phenotyping LIFE Adult study from Leipzig, Germany. Inclusion criteria entailed completeness of datasets and a Leipzig home address, resulting in a sample size of 4000 participants. We analyze self-reported psychological (depression, anxiety) and physical (diabetes, asthma) health via longitudinal cumulative link mixed models (CLMM) in R. We will set up separate models per health outcome to test for effects of several urban characteristics, including greenspace quality and hours spent in greenspace. Land cover, structural characteristics of greenspaces, air pollution and noise levels were collated using geographic information system (GIS) in ArcGIS and extracted for various distances from the individuals’ residences. The impacts of age, gender and socioeconomic status are considered in all analyses. All variables are normalized prior to analysis to provide comparability between models.
Our results will contrast (1) perceived and actual biodiversity in urban residential areas as well as (2) their respective influence on health values over a time frame of five years and (3) delineate the impacts of air and noise pollution and socioeconomic background on these relationships. Understanding the link between health and subjectively perceived as well as objective measures of exposure to biodiverse, natural environments is critical for public health — uncovering the potential of preventive and equitable health care.
| Status Group | Postdoctoral Researcher |
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