ArticleEnvironment international2017
Inverse relationship between urban green space and childhood autism in California elementary school districts.
Article in Environment international, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic Review: Neurodevelopmental Benefits of Active/Passive School Exposure to Green and/or Blue Spaces in Children and Adolescents.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Green Space Quality and Health: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Impact of Green Space Exposure on Children's and Adolescents' Mental Health: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Pooled it
- Comprehensive Intervention and Effect of Martial Arts Routines on Children with Autism.Journal of environmental and public health · 2022Trial
- Association between greenspace exposure before, during, and after pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder in offspring.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Article
- Age-specific life expectancies across school districts in the United States: Applying a population weighted geographic crosswalk to aggregate census tract indicators.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Preconception, prenatal and early childhood exposure to green space and risk of neurodevelopmental delays: a national cohort study among Medicaid enrollees.Environment international · 2025Article
- Exposure to green space is associated with higher skin microbiota species richness in children.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Mapping associations of polygenic scores with autistic and ADHD traits in a single city region.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Article
- Independent and combined effects of fine particulate matter and greenness on autism spectrum disorder symptoms: investigating sensitive periods of exposure in the early two years of life.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Real-world evidence from a multi-center pediatric network: greenness exposure and autism spectrum disorder in urban China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- The Impact of the Urban Built Environment on the Play Behavior of Children with ASD.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Occupational performance of children with autism spectrum disorder and quality of life of their mothers.BMC research notes · 2022Article
- Early-Life Exposure to Green Space and Mid-Childhood Cognition in the Project Viva Cohort, Massachusetts.American journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- Mapping the genetic and environmental aetiology of autistic traits in Sweden and the United Kingdom.JCPP advances · 2021Article
- Synthesis of Two Decades of US EPA's Ecosystem Services Research to Inform Environmental, Community, and Sustainability Decision Making.Sustainability · 2021Article
- Associations between Nature Exposure and Health: A Review of the Evidence.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- Measuring Neighborhood Landscapes: Associations between a Neighborhood's Landscape Characteristics and Colon Cancer Survival.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Urban Trees and Human Health: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Association of sociodemographic factors and internet query data with pertussis infections in Shandong, China.Epidemiology and infection · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Green space has a variety of health benefits. However, little is known about its impact on autism, the fastest-growing neurodevelopmental disorder in children. This study examined the relationship between green space and childhood autism prevalence. Autism count data in 2010 were obtained for 543 of ~560 public elementary school districts in California. Multiple types of green space were measured in each school district, including percentages of forest, grassland, and average tree canopy and near-road tree canopy. Their associations with autism prevalence were evaluated with negative binomial regression models and spatial regression models. We observed inverse associations between several green space metrics and autism prevalence in school districts with high road density, the highly urbanized areas, but not in others. According to negative binomial regression models, adjusted rate ratios (RR) for the relationships in these school districts between autism prevalence and green space metrics in 10% increments were as follows: for forest, RR=0.90 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.84-0.95); for grassland, RR=0.90 (95% CI: 0.83-0.97); for average tree canopy, RR=0.89 (95% CI: 0.83-0.95), and for near-road tree canopy, RR=0.81 (95% CI: 0.73-0.91). These results suggest that increases of 10% in forest, grassland, average tree canopy and near-road tree canopy are associated with a decrease in autism prevalence of 10%, 10% 11% and 19%, respectively. In contrast, urban land and road density were positively associated with autism prevalence. The results of spatial regression models were consistent with those obtained by negative binomial models, except for grassland. Our study suggests that green space, specifically tree cover in areas with high road density, may influence autism prevalence in elementary school children beneficially. Further studies are needed to investigate a potential causal relationship, and the major mechanisms that may underlie the beneficial associations with green space, such as buffering traffic-related air pollution and noise.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.