Nature’s contributions in coping with a pandemic in the 21st century: A narrative review of evidence during COVID-19

Abstract

While COVID-19 lockdowns have slowed coronavirus transmission, such structural measures also have unintended consequences on mental and physical health. Growing evidence shows that exposure to the natural environment (e.g., blue-green spaces) can improve human health and wellbeing. In this narrative review, we synthesized the evidence about nature’s contributions to health and wellbeing during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that during lockdowns, people experienced multiple types of nature, including both outdoors and indoors. Frequency of visits to outdoor natural areas (i.e., public parks) depended on lockdown severity and socio-cultural contexts. Other forms of nature exposure, such as spending time in private gardens and viewing outdoor greenery from windows, may have increased. The majority of the evidence suggests nature exposure during lockdowns was associated with less depression, anxiety, stress, and more happiness and life satisfaction. Additionally, nature exposure was correlated with less physical inactivity and fewer sleep disturbances. Evidence was mixed regarding associations between nature exposure and COVID-related health outcomes, while nature visits might be associated with greater rates of COVID-19 transmission and mortality when proper social distancing measures were not maintained. Findings on whether nature exposure during lockdowns helped ameliorate health inequities by, for example, impacting the health of lower-socioeconomic populations more than their higher-socioeconomic counterparts, were mixed. Based on these findings, we argue that nature exposure may have buffered the negative mental and behavioral impacts of lockdowns during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recovery and resilience during the current and future public health crises might be improved with nature-based solutions, interventions, designs, and governance.

COVID-19 infection rate but not severity is associated with availability of greenness in the United States

“…Second, how people live, work, play, and interact with greenspace may aggregate the existing natural disparities. For example, the work-from-home policy may provide white workers with flexible work and discretionary time ( Labib et al, 2021 ), and result in higher frequency and longer duration of greenspace visits ( Astell-Burt and Feng, 2021 ). This is especially the case for people that have privately-owned gardens and backyards where they can enjoy nature and undertake the associated activities without worrying about COVID-19 exposure ( Labib et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Such approaches include, but are not limited to, economic lockdown for nonessential businesses, work-from-home regulations, social distancing, face coverings in public, gathering bans, out-of-state travel restrictions, and self-isolation and quarantine. Although effective for alleviating the adverse impacts of COVID-19, these strategies also come with many unintended health consequences ranging from increased levels of anxiety, depression, and mental health disorder, to the worsening of various chronic noncommunicable diseases ( Labib et al, 2021 ). This is probably because the pandemic, economic recession, and social lockdown are conducive to the development of unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors (e.g., physical inactivity, and greater consumption of convenience foods), negative emotions (e.g., loneliness and lack of social interaction, higher levels of anxiety, insecurity, and fear), and other symptoms of mental illness.…”

“…Specific to COVID-19, recent studies have shown that greenness is generally associated with lower COVID-19 infection ( Jiang et al, 2021 , Klompmaker et al, 2021 ) and mortality ( Lee et al, 2021 , Russette et al, 2021 ). Although positive associations between greenness and COVID-19 risk are also reported ( Huang et al, 2020 , Pan et al, 2021 ), the net benefit of greenness tends to be positive if social distancing is properly maintained ( Labib et al, 2021 ). While these results do not prove causality between greenness and COVID-19, the revealed negative associations have important implications for reducing COVID-19 transmission and risk.…”

Positive Rational Acceptance of Body Image Threats Mediates the Association Between Nature Exposure and Body Appreciation

“…However, in contrast to previous work where a moderate association has been reported, the link between nature exposure and body appreciation in the present study was weak(er). It is difficult to know why this was the case, though one possibility is that it reflects changes in the frequency and time spent in nature post-COVID-19-related restrictions in the United Positive rational acceptance 12 Kingdom, as well cognitions associated with being in nature (e.g., fear or discomfort with being outdoors in the post-coronavirus era; for a review, see Labib et al, 2021).…”

Green and Healthy —Age Effects in Use and Perception of Urban Green Spaces and their Impact on Personal Health and Well-being during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Recently, COVID-19 pandemic drew public attention back to the living conditions related to housing, access to green areas in close neighbourhood and nearby recreation (Plecak et al 2022;Ciesielski et al 2022;Rice et al, 2020). Numerous studies underlined beneficial effects of green areas on emotional and physical health during pandemic particularly in urban environments (Labib et al 2022;Jackson et al, 2021;Heckert & Bristowe, 2021;Birch et al 2020).…”