New study suggests finds that people in deprived communities are less likely to use medication for depression and anxiety if they have easy access to well-maintained woodlands.
An academic paper published in the Lancet Planetary Health reveals an extraordinary link between mental health and access to nature. In one of the largest analyses of its kind, researchers from both the University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow analysed data from more than 129,000 people over five years to see how investments in local woodlands in and around towns in Scotland affect people’s mental health.
The team used NHS prescription records and census data to assess whether people in Scotland who live within a 10-minute walk of an improved woodland area were more or less likely to take medication for depression or anxiety than those living further away. They found that, where such woodland had been made more welcoming and easier to access, people were 10% less likely to be prescribed antidepressants and 6% less like to be prescribed anti-anxiety medication.
What’s more, this was true even taking into account for other factors linked to mental health outcomes, such as demographics and poverty.
Benefits could also be seen when an individual’s proximity to woodlands changed, too: for example, if someone moved closer to improved woodland, there was a corresponding reduction in their need for medication. That means, say the researchers, that it’s the woodland improvements making the difference, and not just that healthier, wealthier people tend to live in greener places.
The findings are an important endorsement of woodland improvements that have been supported through Scottish Forestry’s Woods In and Around Towns (WIAT) initiative, which provides funding for practical improvements including new footpaths, better signage and community events. The WIAT initiative prioritised areas of higher social and financial disadvantaged, where woodlands required improved management to reduce barriers and enable more local people to enjoy them.
Professor Catharine Ward Thompson of the OPENspace Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh’s College of Art, led the study and says: ‘The research provides stronger evidence on the mental health benefits of woodland improvements for local communities than was possible in earlier studies. It also shows that these benefits may contribute to reducing inequalities in health across the population.
Dr Scott Ogletree, also from the OPENspace Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh’s College of Art, adds: ‘For the first time, we have an opportunity to link data on mental health services with a long-term national urban forestry intervention programme to offer the kind of evidence required to inform future forestry policy. Our results tell us that relatively modest investments in local greenspaces can make a real difference to people’s mental health. Nature focused initiatives like WIAT can be a valuable tool to complement ongoing efforts to improve well-being and mental health.’
Photo: Michael Bowman / Unsplash
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