TY - JOUR
T1 - A cross-sectional analysis of the effects of residential greenness on blood pressure in 10-year old children
T2 - Results from the GINIplus and LISAplus studies
AU - Markevych, Iana
AU - Thiering, Elisabeth
AU - Fuertes, Elaine
AU - Sugiri, Dorothea
AU - Berdel, Dietrich
AU - Koletzko, Sibylle
AU - Von Berg, Andrea
AU - Bauer, Carl Peter
AU - Heinrich, Joachim
N1 - Funding Information:
GINIplus study was mainly supported for the first three years of the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology (interventional arm) and Helmholtz Zentrum Munich (former GSF) (observational arm). The four year, six year, and ten year follow-up examinations of the GINIplus study were covered from the respective budgets of the 5 study centres (Helmholtz Zentrum Munich (former GSF), Research Institute at Marien-Hospital Wesel, LMU Munich, TU Munich and from six years onwards also from IUF - Leibniz Research-Institute for Environmental Medicine at the University of Düsseldorf) and a grant from the Federal Ministry for Environment (IUF Düsseldorf, FKZ 20462296). LISAplus study was mainly supported by grants from the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology and in addition from Helmholtz Zentrum Munich (former GSF), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Research Institute at Marien-Hospital Wesel, Pediatric Practice, Bad Honnef for the first two years. The four year, six year, and ten year follow-up examinations of the LISAplus study were covered from the respective budgets of the involved partners (Helmholtz Zentrum Munich (former GSF), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research -UFZ, Leipzig, Research Institute at Marien-Hospital Wesel, Pediatric Practice, Bad Honnef, IUF – Leibniz-Research Institute for Environmental Medicine at the University of Düsseldorf) and in addition by a grant from the Federal Ministry for Environment (IUF Düsseldorf, FKZ 20462296). The European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7-2007-2011) under grant agreement number: 211250. Elaine Fuertes was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PY - 2014/5/20
Y1 - 2014/5/20
N2 - Background: According to Ulrich's psychoevolutionary theory, contact with green environments mitigates stress by activating the parasympathetic system, (specifically, by decreasing blood pressure (BP)). Experimental studies have confirmed this biological effect. However, greenness effects on BP have not yet been explored using an observational study design. We assessed whether surrounding residential greenness is associated with BP in 10 year-old German children. Methods. Systolic and diastolic BPs were assessed in 10 year-old children residing in the Munich and Wesel study areas of the German GINIplus and LISAplus birth cohorts. Complete exposure, outcome and covariate data were available for 2,078 children. Residential surrounding greenness was defined as the mean of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, derived from Landsat 5 TM satellite images, in circular 500-m buffers around current home addresses of participants. Generalized additive models assessed pooled and area-specific associations between BP and residential greenness categorized into area-specific tertiles. Results: In the pooled adjusted model, the systolic BP of children living at residences with low and moderate greenness was 0.90 ± 0.50 mmHg (p-value = 0.073) and 1.23 ± 0.50 mmHg (p-value = 0.014) higher, respectively, than the systolic BP of children living in areas of high greenness. Similarly, the diastolic BP of children living in areas with low and moderate greenness was 0.80 ± 0.38 mmHg (p-value = 0.033) and 0.96 ± 0.38 mmHg (p-value = 0.011) higher, respectively, than children living in areas with high greenness. These associations were not influenced by environmental stressors (temperature, air pollution, noise annoyance, altitude and urbanisation level). When stratified by study area, associations were significant among children residing in the urbanised Munich area but null for those in the rural Wesel area. Conclusions: Lower residential greenness was positively associated with higher BP in 10 year-old children living in an urbanised area. Further studies varying in participants' age, geographical area and urbanisation level are required.
AB - Background: According to Ulrich's psychoevolutionary theory, contact with green environments mitigates stress by activating the parasympathetic system, (specifically, by decreasing blood pressure (BP)). Experimental studies have confirmed this biological effect. However, greenness effects on BP have not yet been explored using an observational study design. We assessed whether surrounding residential greenness is associated with BP in 10 year-old German children. Methods. Systolic and diastolic BPs were assessed in 10 year-old children residing in the Munich and Wesel study areas of the German GINIplus and LISAplus birth cohorts. Complete exposure, outcome and covariate data were available for 2,078 children. Residential surrounding greenness was defined as the mean of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, derived from Landsat 5 TM satellite images, in circular 500-m buffers around current home addresses of participants. Generalized additive models assessed pooled and area-specific associations between BP and residential greenness categorized into area-specific tertiles. Results: In the pooled adjusted model, the systolic BP of children living at residences with low and moderate greenness was 0.90 ± 0.50 mmHg (p-value = 0.073) and 1.23 ± 0.50 mmHg (p-value = 0.014) higher, respectively, than the systolic BP of children living in areas of high greenness. Similarly, the diastolic BP of children living in areas with low and moderate greenness was 0.80 ± 0.38 mmHg (p-value = 0.033) and 0.96 ± 0.38 mmHg (p-value = 0.011) higher, respectively, than children living in areas with high greenness. These associations were not influenced by environmental stressors (temperature, air pollution, noise annoyance, altitude and urbanisation level). When stratified by study area, associations were significant among children residing in the urbanised Munich area but null for those in the rural Wesel area. Conclusions: Lower residential greenness was positively associated with higher BP in 10 year-old children living in an urbanised area. Further studies varying in participants' age, geographical area and urbanisation level are required.
KW - Blood pressure
KW - Children
KW - Green spaces
KW - Greenness
KW - NDVI
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84901696336
U2 - 10.1186/1471-2458-14-477
DO - 10.1186/1471-2458-14-477
M3 - Article
C2 - 24886243
AN - SCOPUS:84901696336
SN - 1471-2458
VL - 14
JO - BMC Public Health
JF - BMC Public Health
IS - 1
M1 - 477
ER -
