Restorative Environments

Exposure to greenspace has been associated with mental health benefits in children; however, the available evidence for such an association with anxiety is still scarce. This longitudinal study aimed to evaluate that association on a community cohort of 539 children, from Barcelona province, followed from 3 to 11 years. Long-term exposure to greenspace was characterized at both residential address and school as (i) surrounding greenspace based on satellite-derived indexes (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and Vegetation Continuous Field (VCF) across different buffers and (ii) distance to the nearest green space. We characterized anxiety using the Child Behavior Checklist and the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale, and cross-sectionally and longitudinally analyzed the associations between the greenspace exposure and the anxiety, using linear mixed models. Higher greenspace surrounding home and school were associated with lower levels of anxiety. Our findings suggest that increasing exposure to greenspace, specially at schools, could be included in preventive policies to promote mental health in children.

This paper focuses on urban micro public space and examines the intricate indoor environment through users’ experiences. Although studies have revealed the role of public spaces in facilitating social encounters and relationships, further empirical work and place-specific analyses are required for an in-depth understanding of how everyday places work in the context of wellbeing. Grounding in assemblage thinking, this study employs participant observation and 18 semi-structured interviews to explore the socio-material setting and enabling properties of the former church-turned neighborhood gathering place, People's House Absalon (Folkehuset Absalon) in Copenhagen. Though privately owned, rich public life takes place there every day, which shapes positive human experiences. The unique combination of price strategy, opening hours, and interior material setting appeals to wider generations and allows people to conduct everyday tasks in attendance with others. Simple co-presence in the shared context is considered the most valuable experience by the daytime users. It is associated with gentle feel-good moments, from which various levels of restorative benefits are attained at the user's own pace. However, personal preferences, geographical distance, and free time-related conditions signify a complex pathway to be “in” the place to exploit its wellbeing value. Therefore, further empirical work is encouraged to see beyond neighborhood enabling places as a single entity isolated from people's routinized practices.

Urban green spaces (UGSs) are known to promote psychological restoration. However, most traditional studies measure this effect statically using preset assumptions or scenarios, and tend to neglect factors’ varied effect under different conditions. In this study, we investigated the dynamicity of UGS-related factors on human sentiment under different UGS sizes and seasons by analysing social media reviews using machine learning. To this end, first, self-reported online reviews of UGSs in Nanjing City were collected. Next, machine learning-based text mining and natural language processing were performed to extract the latent topics and sentiment level of each review document, respectively. A logistic regression model series was established to analyse the influential valence of the review topics on the sentiment of the reviews. The results revealed that people’s sentiments and corresponding predictor performances are more sensitive to variations in UGS sizes compared with the seasons. Within UGSs, natural and activity features play more important roles in promoting positive sentiments compared with cultural and facility features. Moreover, larger UGSs include more tools that promote positive sentiments, and waterside activities and daily exercise promote positive sentiments throughout the year. Compared with previous studies, this study adopted a dynamic perspective to examine the influence of UGSs on people’s sentiment and provides a new approach in environmental psychoanalysis by integrating different ML-based techniques. Our findings are expected to aid in future decision-making during UGS planning and design in Nanjing and similar cities worldwide.

The importance of the social environment and social inequalities in disease etiology is well-known due to the profound research and conceptual framework on social determinants of health. For a long period, in exposome research with its classical orientation towards detrimental health effects of biological, chemical, and physical exposures, this knowledge remained underrepresented. But currently it gains great awareness and calls for innovations in rethinking the role of social environmental health determinants. To fill this gap that exists in terms of the social domain within exposome research, we propose a novel conceptual framework of the Social Exposome, to integrate the social environment in conjunction with the physical environment into the exposome concept. The iterative development process of the Social Exposome was based on a systematic compilation of social exposures in order to achieve a holistic portrayal of the human social environment – including social, psychosocial, socioeconomic, sociodemographic, local, regional, and cultural aspects, at individual and contextual levels. In order to move the Social Exposome beyond a mere compilation of exposures, three core principles are emphasized that underly the interplay of the multitude of exposures: Multidimensionality, Reciprocity, and Timing and continuity. The key focus of the conceptual framework of the Social Exposome is on understanding the underlying mechanisms that translate social exposures into health outcomes. In particular, insights from research on health equity and environmental justice have been incorporated to uncover how social inequalities in health emerge, are maintained, and systematically drive health outcomes. Three transmission pathways are presented: Embodiment, Resilience and Susceptibility or Vulnerability, and Empowerment. The Social Exposome conceptual framework may serve as a strategic map for, both, research and intervention planning, aiming to further explore the impact of the complex social environment and to alter transmission pathways to minimize health risks and health inequalities and to foster equity in health.

Background

The exposome approach can be a powerful tool for understanding the intertwining of social, physical, and internal influences that shape mental health and cognitive development throughout childhood. To distil conceptual models for subsequent analyses, the EU-funded project Early Environmental quality and Life-course mental health effects (Equal-Life) has conducted literature reviews on potential mediators linking the exposome to these outcomes. We report on a scoping review and a conceptual model of the role of restorative possibilities and physical activity.

Methods

Peer-reviewed studies published since the year 2000 in English, on the association between the exposome and mental health/cognition in children/adolescents, and quantitatively investigating restoration/restorative quality as a mediating variable were considered. Database searches were last updated in December 2022. We used an unstructured expert-driven approach to fill in gaps in the reviewed literature.

Results

Five records of three distinct studies were identified, indicating a scarcity of empirical evidence in this newly developing research area. Not only were these studies few in numbers, but also cross-sectional, lending only tentative support to the idea that perceived restorative quality of adolescent's living environment might mediate the association between greenspace and mental health. Physical activity emerged as a mediator leading to better psychological outcomes in restorative environments. We provide a critical discussion of potential caveats when investigating the restoration mechanism in children and propose a hierarchical model including restoration, physical activity, and relational dynamics between children and their environment, including social context, as well as restorative environments other than nature.

Conclusions

It is justified to further explore the role of restoration and physical activity as mediators in the association between early-life exposome and mental health/cognitive development. It is important to consider the child perspective and specific methodological caveats. Given the evolving conceptual definitions/operationalizations, Equal-Life will attempt to fill in a critical gap in the literature.

Virtual Reality (VR) can bring a person to a restorative natural environment—an immersive experience containing elements from blue and green space that help reduce stress and anxiety. However, the effect of different water sound levels on psychological and physiological health remains unclear. This study used a VR natural environment—combining forest scene and waterfall sounds—to compare the low and high water sound levels' effects on individuals' psychological (affective quality of place and state anxiety relief) and physiological benefits (heart rate variability). We focused on two comparisons in each of the two dimensions: (1) a before-and-after comparison that analyzes the effectiveness of the water sounds, and (2) a low-and-high comparison that investigates the differences between the two sound levels. A total of 45 university students (aged between 19 and 23) participated in the experiment. The results show that both low- and high-decibel levels improved in psychological dimension, and decrease individuals’ heart rates from anxiety status. More importantly, while the high-decibel served to awaken emotions, the low-decibel was more effective at calming emotions and relieving anxiety. Overall, we found that natural waterscape sounds relieve transient anxiety states and promote healthy autonomic nervous activity. This study provides evidence for the planning of healthy environmental interaction patterns and the design of urban soundscapes.