Fast Fact Library

According to a Michigan study based on salivary biomarkers, the greatest stress reduction benefit is achieved with 20 to 30 minutes of exposure to urban nature. Participants taking a "nature pill" of 20 to 30...

Hunter, MaryCarol R., Brenda W. Gillespie, and Sophie Yu-Pu Chen. (April 2019). Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers. Frontiers in Psychology 10: 722. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00722

Sites with inexpensive community-driven design interventions like colorful crosswalks and greenery in concrete lanes may be associated with higher levels of happiness, more trust in strangers, and greater sense of...

Negami, Hanna R., Robin Mazumder, Mitchell Reardon, and Colin G. Ellard. “Field Analysis of Psychological Effects of Urban Design: a Case Study in Vancouver.” Cities & Health 2, no. 2 (2018): 106–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2018.1548257

A study of data provided by 575 Australian mothers with a child between the ages of 2 and 5 indicated that outdoor play time was positively associated with cooperative and easy-going social skills along with...

Hinkley T, Brown H, Carson V, Teychenne M (2018) Cross sectional associations of screen time and outdoor play with social skills in preschool children. PLoS ONE 13(4): e0193700. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193700

People living in urban environments with higher walkability, better availability of public transport, and more parks were found to be active on average 68 to 89 minutes more per week than people living in less...

Sallis, James F., Ester Cerin, Terry L. Conway, Marc A. Adams, Lawrence D. Frank, Michael Pratt, Deborah Salvo, Jasper Schipperijn, Graham Smith, Kelli L. Cain, Rachel Davey, Jaqueline Kerr, Poh-Chin Lai, Josef Mitás, Rodrigo Reis, Olga L. Sarmiento, Grant Schofield, Jens Troelsen, Delfien Van Dyck, Ilse De Bourdeauhuij, and Neville Owen 2016. “Physical activity in relation to urban environments in 14 cities worldwide: a cross-sectional study.” Lancet 28; 387 (2018): 2207-17. https://doi.org10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01284-2

Greater exposure to plants, particularly of diverse and native species, may support immune health. In a study of nearly 50,000 children in New Zealand, children who were exposed to more vegetation were 6% less...

Geoffrey Donovan, Demetrios Gatziolis, and Jeroen Douwes. “Vegetation diversity protects against childhood asthma: results from a large New Zealand birth cohort.” Nature Plants. 4(6): 358-364 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-018-0151-8

Access to green space for urban-dwelling women may be associated with lower risk of breast cancer. A study of 1,129 breast cancer cases and 1,619 controls throughout 10 Spanish provinces indicates that the closer a...

O’Callaghan-Gordo C., M. Kogevinas, M. Cirach, G. Castaño-Vinyals, N. Aragonés, J. Delfrade, T. Fernández-Villa, P. Amiano, T. Dierssen-Sotos, A. Tardon, R. Capelo, R, Peiró-Perez, V. Moreno, A. Roca-Barceló, B. Perez-Gomez, J. Vidan, A. Molina, M. Oribe, E, Gràcia-Lavedan, A. Espinosa,  A. Valentin, M. Pollán, MJ Nieuwenhuijsen. (August 2018). Residential proximity to green spaces and breast cancer risk: The multicase control study in Spain (MCC-Spain). International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2018.07.014.

A study of 167 European cities suggests that up to 10,000 premature deaths could be avoided annually if cities provided sufficient infrastructure and 1 in every 4 citizens used bicycling as their primary mode of...

Natalie Mueller et al., on behalf of the PASTA consortium. Health impact assessment of cycling network expansions in European cities. Preventive Medicine 10.1016 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.12.011

The greening of vacant lots can reduce self-reported feelings of depression in adults. In a Philadelphia study of 324 participants living in an area where 110 vacant lots received clean-up and greening interventions...

South, Eugenia C., Bernadette C. Hohl, Michelle C. Kondo,  John M. MacDonald, and Charles C. Branas. (2018). Effect of Greening Vacant Land on Mental Health of Community-Dwelling Adults: A Cluster Randomized Trial. JAMA Netw Open 1(3):e180298. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.0298

A study of 174 parks in 25 U.S. cities found that parks with walking loops had 90% higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in park users as compared to parks without walking loops. Parks with walking...

Cohen, Deborah A., Bing Han, Kelly R. Evenson, Catherine Nagel, Thomas L. Mckenzie, Terry Marsh, Stephanie Williamson, and Peter Harnik. “The Prevalence and Use of Walking Loops in Neighborhood Parks: A National Study.” Environmental Health Perspectives 125, no. 2 (2017): 170–74. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp293.