Fast Fact Library

A review of 28 studies found that children aged 3-12 years who spend more time outside are more active and less sedentary than children who spend more time inside. This was apparent across ages, sexes, and contexts.

Gray, Casey, Rebecca Gibbons, Richard Larouche, Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter, Adam Bienenstock, Mariana Brussoni, Guylaine Chabot et al. (2015). What Is the Relationship between Outdoor Time and Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and Physical Fitness in Children? A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(6), 6455-6474.

Green spaces can improve cognitive development in children. A one-year study of 2,593 Barcelona schoolchildren indicated that exposure to green space at home, while commuting, and in schoolyards is associated with...

Payam Dadvand, Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, Mikel Esnaola, Joan Forns, Xavier Basagaña, Mar Alvarez-Pedrerol, Ioar Rivas, Mónica López-Vicente, Montserrat De Castro Pascual, Jason Su, Michael Jerrett, Xavier Querol, and Jordi Sunyer (June 2015) PNAS 112 (26) 7937-7942.  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503402112

Study participants who went on a 90-minute walk through a natural environment reported lower levels of rumination (repetitive thought focused on negative aspects of the self) than participants who walked through an...

Bratman, Gregory N., J. Paul Hamilton, Kevin S. Hahn, Gretchen C. Daily, and James J. Gross. (2015). Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201510459.

In a large, international study of urban residents, researchers found that only access to green space and recreational areas made a difference in reducing neighborhood socioeconomic health inequalities, while...

Mitchell, Richard J., Elizabeth A. Richardson, Niamh K. Shortt, and Jamie R. Pearce. (2015). Neighborhood Environments and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mental Well-Being. American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Increasing the number of native mature trees preserved in new urban housing developments is an effective way to increase bird diversity, according to this study in Queensland, Australia. Streets that retained mature...

Barth, Benjamin James, Sean Ian FitzGibbon, and Robbie Stuart Wilson. (2015). New urban developments that retain more remnant trees have greater bird diversity. Landscape and Urban Planning, 136, 122-129.

Improved water clarity is associated with increased numbers of recreational visits to lakes in Minnesota and Iowa. People were willing to travel 56 minutes farther for every one-meter increase in water clarity based...

Keeler, Bonnie L., Spencer A. Wood, Stephen Polasky, Catherine Kling, Christopher T. Filstrup, and John A. Downing. (2015). Recreational demand for clean water: evidence from geotagged photographs by visitors to lakes. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13(2), 76-81.

Urban middle school students in Canada were more physically active when their neighborhoods contained undeveloped natural areas with trees but not meadows. For every 5% increase in tree-covered land, there was a...

Janssen, Ian, and Andrei Rosu. (2015). Undeveloped green space and free-time physical activity in 11 to 13-year-old children. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 12(1), 26.

In a study of four urban parks in low-income neighborhoods in San Francisco, the two recently renovated parks saw more than a doubling in the number of visitors and a substantial increase in energy expended by...

Cohen, Deborah A., Bing Han, Jennifer Isacoff, Bianca Shulaker, Stephanie Williamson, Terry Marsh, Thomas L. McKenzie, Megan Weir, and Rajiv Bhatia. (2015). Impact of park renovations on park use and park-based physical activity. Journal of Physical Activity & Health, 12(2), 289-295. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2013-0165

A controlled, randomized trial of 12 low-income New York elementary schools indicates that school gardens can positively contribute to increased physical activity in children. Children at schools that received a...

Nancy M. Wells, Beth M. Myers, and Charles R. Henderson Jr. “School gardens and physical activity: A randomized controlled trial of low-income elementary schools.” Preventative Medicine 69 (December 2014): S27-S33.