ArticleScientific reports2021
Associations between green/blue spaces and mental health across 18 countries.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 115 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
115 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of virtual reality nature effects on higher education students' mental health and wellbeing.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2025Pooled it
- Depression and lifestyle: Focusing on nutrition, exercise, and their possible relevance to molecular mechanisms.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2023Pooled it
- The use of virtual reality to improve quality of recovery in women undergoing gynecological surgeries: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Effects of a Semantically Irrelevant Virtual Reality Experience on Memory and Emotion After Watching a Traumatic Event: Randomized Controlled Experimental Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Trial
- Randomised trial reveals a mismatch between preferences for and hormonal responses to anthropogenic light colour temperatures.PloS one · 2025Trial
- Effect of Relaxation-Based Virtual Reality on Psychological and Physiological Stress of Substance Abusers Under Detoxification: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Brain and behavior · 2024Trial
- Urban environment, health, and equity: A population-based study of symptoms and annoyances related to air pollution, traffic noise, and greenness.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2026Article
- Leveraging Google location history data to assess the impact of activities, locations, and time spent in green space on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Psychometric Evaluation of the Lithuanian Version of the Revised Compound Psychological Capital Scale (CPC-12R) and Its Associations with Nature Exposure and Physical Activity.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Surfing Across Life Domains: A Qualitative Study on the Role of Leisure Activities in Occupational Well-Being.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- How Mountain Park Spatial Environments Affect Physiological and Psychological Perceptions of Young Adults Based on Real Time Sensor Monitoring.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The Community-Environment-Health Nexus: Connecting Community-Led Climate Action to Health Co-Benefits.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Community severance and mental health-related hospital visits in New York City.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2026Article
- Long-term effects of urban biophilic art environments on depression and anxiety symptoms: a longitudinal intervention study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Nonlinear associations and threshold effects between built environment features and schizophrenia incidence: Implications for healthy city planning.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Associations of forest vs. urban environmental exposure with well-being and nasal microbiome composition: An exploratory pilot study.Environmental research · 2026Article
- Needs to connect to urban nature in female university students from Southern Germany: a mixed methods concept mapping study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Expert perspectives on exposure-response functions for urban health policy: Lessons from a UBDPolicy workshop.Environmental research · 2026Review
- Climate resilient adaptation of coastal amenities for wellbeing.Cambridge prisms. Coastal futures · 2026Review
- Swimming classes as campus blue space: a qualitative study of emotion regulation, social support and psychological resilience among university students.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
55 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Living near, recreating in, and feeling psychologically connected to, the natural world are all associated with better mental health, but many exposure-related questions remain. Using data from an 18-country survey (n = 16,307) we explored associations between multiple measures of mental health (positive well-being, mental distress, depression/anxiety medication use) and: (a) exposures (residential/recreational visits) to different natural settings (green/inland-blue/coastal-blue spaces); and (b) nature connectedness, across season and country. People who lived in greener/coastal neighbourhoods reported higher positive well-being, but this association largely disappeared when recreational visits were controlled for. Frequency of recreational visits to green, inland-blue, and coastal-blue spaces in the last 4 weeks were all positively associated with positive well-being and negatively associated with mental distress. Associations with green space visits were relatively consistent across seasons and countries but associations with blue space visits showed greater heterogeneity. Nature connectedness was also positively associated with positive well-being and negatively associated with mental distress and was, along with green space visits, associated with a lower likelihood of using medication for depression. By contrast inland-blue space visits were associated with a greater likelihood of using anxiety medication. Results highlight the benefits of multi-exposure, multi-response, multi-country studies in exploring complexity in nature-health associations.
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