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The greening of vacant urban land dramatically reduces feelings of depression and improves the overall mental health of surrounding residents, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences' University of Pennsylvania Controlled Study published in JAMA Network Open
The findings have implications for cities across the country, where 15 percent of the land is considered vacant and often destroyed or filled with waste and debris. overgrown vegetation.
For the first time, the research team measured the mental health of Philadelphia residents before and after the conversion of vacant lots nearby into green spaces, as well as residents living near untreated abandoned lots and those who had just been cleaned.
The researchers found that people living within a quarter of a mile of green land had a 41.5% decrease in feelings of depression compared to those who lived near the lots who did not. had not been cleaned. the lots also experienced a nearly 63% decrease in self-reported poor mental health compared to those living near the lots that received no intervention.
The results add to the growing evidence of revitalized spaces in urban areas and health, such as reduced levels of crime, violence and stress.
The most recent study of the same team revealed a 29% decrease in violence
It is believed that this latest work is the first experimental study to evaluate changes in the mental health of residents after greening vacant lots nearby
"Dilapidated and vacant spaces are factors that increase the risk to residents. Eugenia C. South, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and a member of Penn 's Emergency Care and Policy Research Center, said:. "These new data show us that structural changes, such as green spaces, have a positive impact on the health of the residents of these neighborhoods. And this can be achieved in a cost – effective and scalable way, not only in Philadelphia, but in other cities with the same damaging environmental environment. "
For the trial, 541 vacant lots in Philadelphia were randomly badigned to one of three arms study: greening intervention, garbage cleaning intervention or control group without intervention
] The greening intervention consisted of removing garbage, leveling the land, planting new grbades and a small number of trees, installing a low wooden fence and regular monthly maintenance. garbage disposal consisted of removing litter, mowing the lawn if possible, and performing regular monthly maintenance.
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's LandCare Program conducted greening, cleaning and maintenance. The researchers used the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), a widely used community-based screening tool, to badess the prevalence of severe mental illness in men and women. people aged 18 to 18, 18 months before revitalization and 18 months later. the community. Participants were asked to indicate how often they felt nervous, desperate, agitated, depressed, that everything was an effort and worthless.
The results were more pronounced when we looked only at neighborhoods below the poverty line. nearly 68% of the green lots decreased significantly.
The badyzes of the garbage cleaning intervention compared to the absence of intervention showed no significant change in self-reported mental health.
"The lack of change in these groups probably because garbage cleaning lots have not created additional green space," said John MacDonald, professor of criminology and sociology in Penn. "The results argue that exposure to more natural environments can help restore mental health, especially for people living in stressful and chaotic urban environments."
The study shows that transforming environments of corrupt neighborhoods into green spaces improves the trajectory of residents "Mental health, according to the authors
Adding green spaces to neighborhoods should be considered alongside individual treatments to address issues Mental Health in Communities with Limited Resources
In addition, greening is an affordable approach that costs about $ 1600 per vacant lot. For these reasons, say the authors, the greening of vacant land can be an extremely attractive intervention for policymakers seeking to combat the urban plague and promote health
. scalable way of improving cities and improving the health of populations while encouraging them to stay in their home country "Charles C. Branas, President of Epidemiology at 39, Columbia University and Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, said, "While mental health therapies are still a vital part of treatment, revitalizing the places where people live, work and play can have a general impact on mental health. "
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