A Forest Service study of nearly 50,000 children in New Zealand has found that those who live in greener neighborhoods are less likely to develop asthma. However, not all greenness is a good thing—children living in areas with nonnative plant species or low plant diversity were actually at a greater risk of developing the chronic lung disease.
A Forest Service study of nearly 50,000 children in New Zealand has found that those who live in greener neighborhoods are less likely to develop asthma. However, not all greenness is a good thing—children living in areas with nonnative plant species or low plant diversity were actually at a greater risk of developing the chronic lung disease.
The study is the first to indicate that plant diversity can protect against a specific adverse health outcome and is published in the journal Nature Plants.
“Our results show that biodiversity conservation isn’t just an ecological issue; it also provides concrete health benefits,” said Geoffrey Donovan, a research forester with the Pacific Northwest Research Station and lead author of the study.
Through his previous research on the benefits of urban trees, Donovan collaborated with Massey University in New Zealand, where the country’s Integrated Data Infrastructure—a large, individual-level database covering most of the nation’s 4.6 million residents that includes 166 billion pieces of data on health, housing, and other variables—allowed the researchers to longitudinally study the relationship between the natural environment and health.
By accessing the dataset at a secure data lab in New Zealand, Donovan and his colleagues explored the association between asthma and the natural environment in 49,956 New Zealand children followed through age 18. They calculated the greenness of neighborhoods using satellite imagery and land-use data and linked this index of vegetation to health records from throughout each child’s life.
Read more at USDA Forest Service - Pacific Northwest Research Station
Image: View overlooking Wellington, New Zealand. (Credit: Geoffrey Donovan, U.S. Forest Service)
