This project will investigate whether changes in people’s access and exposure to natural environments in Wales impacts on their mental health.
The three-year collaborative study brings together experts in health, geography, data linkage, statistics, and psychology from Swansea, Liverpool, Exeter and Cardiff universities and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.
One in four people experience a mental health condition in their lives, and access to natural environments – ‘green-blue spaces’, such as parks and beaches – may provide opportunities to support and promote good public mental health and wellbeing.
We will investigate whether a change in access and exposure to green-blue spaces, for instance because they move home or the land-use around their home changes, has an impact on mental health.
This is a retrospective, data-linkage study, meaning we will bring together health, environment and survey data from the past 11 years (2008-2018).
We will create a longitudinal dataset of green-blue spaces for Wales with data from sources such as Ordnance Survey, local authorities and satellite data, and we will use it to measure people’s access to green-blue spaces.
These measures, along with survey data on how optimistic or relaxed people have been, will then be linked with anonymised health data in the SAIL (Secure Anonymised Information Linkage) Databank to help us determine whether a positive change in access and exposure to green-blue spaces lowers the risk of anxiety and depression.
We will share our results with policymakers, local authorities and third-sector charities to help generate evidence-based policy and practice.