Healthy urban environments for children and young people: A systematic review of intervention studies

Audrey, Suzanne; Batista-Ferrer, Harriet

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.09.004

Cited by 60 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…In line with this, previous reviews that have used the ACROBAT-NRSI have similarly not reported judgements for the direction of bias, suggesting they did not carry out these judgements or could not achieve reliable coding. This includes one systematic review in this area that looked at the effect of the urban environment on health in children and young people [ 57 ], and numerous other reviews within the field of public health [ 58 – 61 ]. Further, it is unlikely that analysing the direction of bias would have significantly altered the results of this review since there are similar numbers of problems detected that would affect the findings in an overall positive or negative direction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of changing the built environment on physical activity: a quantitative review of the risk of bias in natural experiments

Benton

Anderson

Hunter

et al. 2016

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

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BackgroundEvidence regarding the association of the built environment with physical activity is influencing policy recommendations that advocate changing the built environment to increase population-level physical activity. However, to date there has been no rigorous appraisal of the quality of the evidence on the effects of changing the built environment. The aim of this review was to conduct a thorough quantitative appraisal of the risk of bias present in those natural experiments with the strongest experimental designs for assessing the causal effects of the built environment on physical activity.MethodsEligible studies had to evaluate the effects of changing the built environment on physical activity, include at least one measurement before and one measurement of physical activity after changes in the environment, and have at least one intervention site and non-intervention comparison site. Given the large number of systematic reviews in this area, studies were identified from three exemplar systematic reviews; these were published in the past five years and were selected to provide a range of different built environment interventions. The risk of bias in these studies was analysed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool: for Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ACROBAT-NRSI).ResultsTwelve eligible natural experiments were identified. Risk of bias assessments were conducted for each physical activity outcome from all studies, resulting in a total of fifteen outcomes being analysed. Intervention sites included parks, urban greenways/trails, bicycle lanes, paths, vacant lots, and a senior citizen’s centre. All outcomes had an overall critical (n = 12) or serious (n = 3) risk of bias. Domains with the highest risk of bias were confounding (due to inadequate control sites and poor control of confounding variables), measurement of outcomes, and selection of the reported result.ConclusionsThe present review focused on the strongest natural experiments conducted to date. Given this, the failure of existing studies to adequately control for potential sources of bias highlights the need for more rigorous research to underpin policy recommendations for changing the built environment to increase physical activity. Suggestions are proposed for how future natural experiments in this area can be improved.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12966-016-0433-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of changing the built environment on physical activity: a quantitative review of the risk of bias in natural experiments

Benton

Anderson

Hunter

et al. 2016

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

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“… 15 Other reviews that deal with the benefits of nature for children’s health focus on a variety of other outcomes, such as physical health, rather than mental health. 16–18 The specific objective of this review is to examine the evidence for all children and teenagers (birth to 18 years) to determine how interacting with different types of nature may benefit the mental health of children and teenagers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental health benefits of interactions with nature in children and teenagers: a systematic review

Tillmann

Tobin

Avison

et al. 2018

J Epidemiol Community Health

269

161

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BackgroundIt is commonly believed that nature has positive impacts on children’s health, including physical, mental and social dimensions. This review focuses on how accessibility to, exposure to and engagement with nature affects the mental health of children and teenagers.MethodsTen academic databases were used to systematically search and identify primary research papers in English or French from 1990 to 1 March 2017. Papers were included for review based on their incorporation of nature, children and teenagers (0–18 years), quantitative results and focus on mental health.ResultsOf the 35 papers included in the review, the majority focused on emotional well-being and attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity disorder. Other outcome measures included overall mental health, self-esteem, stress, resilience, depression and health-related quality of life. About half of all reported findings revealed statistically significant positive relationships between nature and mental health outcomes and almost half reported no statistical significance.ConclusionsFindings support the contention that nature positively influences mental health; however, in most cases, additional research with more rigorous study designs and objective measures of both nature and mental health outcomes are needed to confirm statistically significant relationships. Existing evidence is limited by the cross-sectional nature of most papers.

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“…However, existing studies related to the association between psychological factors and park usage for young urban residents remain relatively deficient in Chinese society. This is important because encouraging park visitation could promote the physical health and mental health of young residents [ 41 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Perception of Green Space for Health Promotion on Willingness to Use Parks and Actual Use among Young Urban Residents

Chen

Luo

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Promoting the use of green space is a fundamental way to improve physical and mental health and to enhance the quality of life of urban residents. In response to increasing demand for green space in cities, the impact of perception of green space for health promotion on willingness to use parks and actual use among young urban residents was investigated in this study. A total of 1135 young residents (ages 18–35) in three cities in China were surveyed by online questionnaire. A group of multiple regression models was constructed to investigate the influencing perception factors of participants’ willingness to use parks and actual use. The results revealed that the young residents’ perception of green space components for health promotion (green space access, types, sizes, plants, water, sensory features, microclimate environments and amenity facilities) had a greater effect on their willingness to use parks and to promote health, while it was less influential with respect to their actual park use behavior (frequency and duration). Among these variables, green space access is a critical concern for willingness to use toward parks. The disparities of perception of green space for health promotion effect on willingness to use a park and actual use provide a better understanding of the psychological factors affecting park use among young residents. The findings also provided some implications for public health policymakers, urban planners and landscape architects in designing parks to encourage visitation by young people.

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Healthy urban environments for children and young people: A systematic review of intervention studies

Cited by 60 publications

References 54 publications

The effect of changing the built environment on physical activity: a quantitative review of the risk of bias in natural experiments

The effect of changing the built environment on physical activity: a quantitative review of the risk of bias in natural experiments

Mental health benefits of interactions with nature in children and teenagers: a systematic review

Impact of Perception of Green Space for Health Promotion on Willingness to Use Parks and Actual Use among Young Urban Residents

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