Direct Exposure to Green and Blue Spaces is Associated with Greater Mental Wellbeing in Older Adults

Abstract

Exposure to the natural environment may benefit individuals’ mental health, but quantitative evidence for older adults is limited. We used Experience Sampling Method to collect 2,774 reports on daily experiences from 200 adults aged 65 and above living in Poland. Multilevel mixed effects logistic regression models examined the association between individuals’ location and their self-reported stress and enjoyment. Being in green and blue spaces was associated with significantly lower odds of experiencing stress and significantly higher odds of experiencing enjoyment net of other individual-level and situational factors. Accessible green and blue spaces may help improve older adults’ psychological wellbeing.

Keywords:

• Green and blue spaces
• older adults
• stress
• wellbeing

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to all respondents, many of whom were frail and at an advanced age, without whose dedication and commitment this study would not have been possible.

Ethical approval

The study received ethics clearance from the University of Warsaw Rector’s Committee for the Ethics of Research Involving Human Participants. Ethics approval number: 44/2019.

Consent form

Written informed consent was obtained from all respondents.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Grant Agreement No 840113.