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Seeing green produces a healthier community
January 2003
People in cities live longer, healthier lives if their streets are tree-lined and they have a park within easy walking distance - or so claim a team of Japanese researchers who have just completed a five year study into urban longevity.
Their findings, published by the British Medical Association, suggest that parks and gardens should not be treated as cosmetic and that green space should be given greater priority as planners prepare cities for an expanding population of elderly people.
The researchers say that no matter what a person's social or economic status, 50% of the factors which will determine how long they live are associated with ready access to a green environment.
The research team, headed by Professor T. Takano of the Graduate School of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, used as their study sample 3144 people living in Tokyo and born in 1903, 1908, 1913 and 1918.
The study lasted five years and by the end of the period, 897 of the elderly people had died. At the beginning of the study, each person had been asked to complete a questionnaire on such matters as their living environment, monthly expenses, their proximity to urban green space, traffic noise, amount of sunlight entering their home, "neighbourliness", and local crime levels.
"Not unexpectedly, the oldest and poorest people died sooner, and more hours of sunlight in the home and lower environmental noise levels were both associated with longer lives," said the research report.
"But being able to walk to a park and/or tree lined streets near to where they lived, and as a consequence, feeling positive about their community, were significantly associated with living longer."
The scan also showed:
Measuring ability
One effect of an aging population is the extra number of elderly drivers that can be expected on the roads. The possible consequences are already attracting researchers - but one set of results has been quite unpredictable.
Eleni Karagiannidou, a psychologist at Scotland's University of Strathclyde decided to discover what part self-monitoring might play in increasing the awareness of elderly motorists to their deteriorating abilities. ¹
Some 61 motorists out of a group of 221 each over 60-years-of-age was asked to keep a "Driving Diary" for 30 consecutive journeys. The results revealed puzzling findings. Although the general confidence level of the diarists decreased - their willingness to engage in more challenging driving situations, increased.
According to a statement from the British Psychological Society, once the motorists had started keeping diaries, they reported that they were less likely to avoid driving in rush hours, at night, at complicated junctions, and parking on busy roads or in narrow spaces.
"Even though drivers' confidence apparently decreased and they described their driving as worse when comparing it with when they were younger, they saw themselves as more skilful than their peers," said the statement. "Finally, after keeping the diary, they generally described themselves as more aware of the changes in their driving skills."
¹ "Urban residential environments and senior citizens' longevity in megacity areas: the importance of walkable green spaces" by T. Takano et al British Medical Association's Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Nov 2002 No.56 pp 913-918
