[Research Funding Opportunity] NIHR : What are the health and health inequality impacts of being outdoors for children and young people?

NIHR | November 2021 | What are the health and health inequality impacts of being outdoors for children and young people?

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has announced funding is available for research addressing the question: what are the health and health inequality impacts of being outdoors for children and young people?

The Public Health Research Programme (PHR) is accepting Stage 1 applications to their commissioned workstream for this topic.

Full information including timescales, and webinars to support applications are available from NIHR

• Commissioning brief
• Stage 1 guidance notes
• PHR supporting information

Proposals received by 1pm on 5 April 2022, and deemed within remit, will be assessed for their importance to public health by the Prioritisation Committee (PC) in May 2022.

Full details from NIHR

Spending time in natural environments can benefit health and well-being

White, M. P. et al. | Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with
good health and wellbeing | Scientific Reports | published online 13 June 2019

Spending time in natural environments can benefit health and well-being, but exposure-response relationships are under-researched. We examined associations between recreational nature contact in the last seven days and self-reported health and well-being.

Participants (n = 19,806) were drawn from the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment Survey (2014/15–2015/16); weighted to be nationally representative. Weekly contact was categorised using 60 min blocks. Analyses controlled for residential greenspace and other neighbourhood and individual factors.

Compared to no nature contact last week, the likelihood of reporting good health or high well-being became significantly greater with contact. Positive associations peaked between 200–300 mins per week with no further gain. The pattern was consistent across key groups including older adults and those with long-term health issues. It did not matter how 120 mins of contact a week was achieved (e.g. one long vs. several shorter visits/week).

Prospective longitudinal and intervention studies are a critical next step in developing possible weekly nature exposure guidelines comparable to those for physical activity.

Full report: Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing 

Urban green space interventions and health

Urban green space interventions and health: a review of impacts and effectiveness | World Health Organisation

This report aims to fill the knowledge gap on the benefits of urban green spaces. It outlines the results of an evidence review and an assessment of local case studies on urban green space interventions and finds that increasing or improving urban green space can deliver positive health, social and environmental outcomes for all population groups, particularly among lower socioeconomic status groups. It highlights the need to more fully include health and equity outcomes in studies on green space interventions in future.

• Report
• Press release

Gardens and health: it’s time for health policy to bring gardens in from the cold

Buck, D. The King’s Fund Blog. Published online: 17 May 2016

By David Buck

Green space – and its link to improving the public’s health – was one of the areas included in our 2013 report on the evidence around how local authorities could make the most of their existing functions – from housing to supporting employment – to improve their citizens’ health.

Image source: Liam Quinn – Wikimedia // CC BY-SA 2.0

I admit, I started out as a bit of a sceptic when it came to the link between green space and health, thinking that the observed relationship between access to more green space and health was primarily driven – especially in urban areas – by the fact that more-wealthy people live nearer green space than less-wealthy people, and the wealthier you are, the healthier you tend to be. The evidence included in our 2013 report started to challenge my scepticism.

Image source:King’s Fund

I therefore welcomed the opportunity to explore the many and diverse relationships between gardens, gardening and health more thoroughly as part of work commissioned by the National Gardens Scheme, the findings of which are published today in an editorially independent report.

Read the full blog post here

Read the full report here