A matter of minutes
So, when it comes to proximity to green space in times of crisis (such as the 2020/21 lockdowns across the globe), how close is optimal for it to actively benefit a community? How far away is actually disincentivising for good health habits? And how might community connection act as a buffer to these factors?
Our research: the first known UK study.
In researching this topic, we became interested in exploring what local built environment factors might safeguard communities and individuals during a time of crisis… In response, we undertook the first known study to investigate changing health behaviours during the 2020 UK pandemic restrictions... and how they might have been affected by people's access to public green space and community cohesion.
Our study. During summer 2020 restrictions in the UK, 5,000* respondents were surveyed and asked:
How often are you exercising compared to before the pandemic?
Response options were: “Less often”, “About the same”, “More often”.
How far is the nearest green space (e.g., park, playing field, public garden, woodland, or other green space) from your home?
Response options were: “Less than 5 min walk”, “5-10 min walk”, “More than 10 min walk”.
How much do you agree with the following statements: Living in this neighbourhood gives me a sense of community; If I need advice about something I go to someone in my neighbourhood; The friendships and associations I have with people in my neighbourhood mean a lot to me; and I feel my behaviour is being observed or judged by others in my neighbourhood.
The five response options were: “A great deal”, “A lot”, “A moderate amount”, “A little”, and “None at all”.**
Participants were also asked to give details of their age, gender, education level, and employment status, in order for these factors to be accounted for before any results could be drawn.
* Circa 5,000 surveyed
** A scale was created by reversing item 4, then averaging the scores for the four items, with higher scores indicating better neighbourhood social cohesion.
A health boost across the board: Our findings.
Our research first looked at whether someone’s perceived distance from public green space could reliably predict whether they undertook a positive health habit (exercise) more or less than usual during the lockdown restrictions. We found that: 1. The furthest away distance (a perceived more than 10-min walk away) significantly predicted a higher likelihood of reporting doing less exercise than usual compared to a less than 5-min walk.
We then looked at whether levels of community cohesion could act as a similar predictor, and found: 2. The higher someone’s reported levels of community cohesion, the higher the likelihood of them reporting actually doing more exercise than usual despite the lockdown restrictions.
Finally, we sought to establish whether this community cohesion could partially explain the predictive relationship between proximity to public green space and exercise frequency during the time period. We found: 3. Community cohesion is a partial underlying factor in explaining the relationship between proximity to public green space and changes in exercise behaviour.
This remained when accounting for other potential factors, such as age, gender, employment status and education levels.
Our final aim was to understand how well public green space proximity and community cohesion levels together predicted exercising less or more than usual during the pandemic...
Graph 1: exercising less than usual
Reductions in a positive health behaviour (such as exercise) is a concern during a period of societal crisis. This graph shows how lower neighbourhood cohesion is much more likely to predict exercising ‘less than usual’ compared to higher community cohesion. It also shows that when a person was more than a +10-minute perceived walk away from green space, this likelihood of exercising less than usual increased even further.
In essence, a perceived +10-minute walk compared to one that is anything less compounds with low neighbourhood cohesion levels to strongly predict exercising less than usual.
Graph 2: exercising more than usual
An increase in a positive health behaviour (such as exercise) is a positive change policy-makers want to promote, particularly during period of societal crisis. This graph shows how higher neighbourhood cohesion is much more likely to predict exercising ‘more than usual’ compared to lower neighbourhood cohesion. It also shows that when a person was less than a 10-minute perceived walk away from green space, the likelihood of exercising more than usual increased even further.
In essence, a perceived less-than-10-minute walk compared to one over 10 minutes compounds with high neighbourhood cohesion levels to strongly predict exercising more than usual.
So what might it all mean? Our findings suggest a number of important considerations for the built environment and human-centred design.
“Our study specifically shows how we have a responsibility in the built environment to understand the individual and combined risks of less access to green space and lower neighbourhood cohesion, and particularly how these are enhanced during times of crisis. How might we link in with broader frameworks and interdisciplinary collaborations to support strategies that improve individual, community, and societal health?”