In a greener environment-raised children to develop according to a Danish study, in the course of her life, of rare mental disorders. As scientists at the University of Aarhus reports, surrounded by forests, meadows, gardens, or Parks that have become large people up to 55 percent lower risk for mental disorders than those without such an environment. The researchers see this as evidence that cities should be green.
“Green areas are in the Childhood, is extremely important”
For the in the US scientific journal “PNAS” published study, the researchers have investigated with the help of satellite images from the years 1985 to 2013, the landscape around the homes of nearly one Million Danes. These data were compared with the risk to develop in the further course of life, one of 16 different mental health disorders. “With our data set, we show that the risk of developing a mental disorder decreases gradually, the longer one is from birth up to the age of ten years, surrounded by green areas,” said study leader Kristine Engemann. “Green areas are in the Childhood, therefore, extremely important.” It is not necessarily a bad thing, when you grow up in a city – as long as green spaces are around you, said Engemann.
There is growing evidence that the natural environment plays a larger role for the mental health so far, so close man. This Knowledge is according to the researchers, not the least important, because more and more parts of the world’s population live in cities. The view that life in the city is a risk factor, even among researchers in Germany. “People in the city react differently to social Stress than those in the country,” says Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg from the Central Institute of Mental health, Medical faculty Mannheim of the University Heidelberg. “We know that there are also in Germany such a difference between city and country.”
Researchers are calling for more green spaces for cities
Only a few years ago, the threshold had been exceeded, that worldwide, more people lived in cities in than in the country, says the psychiatrist. “Urbanization as such is increasing incredibly. This is a rapid process.” Studies such as the Danes showed that green areas could also protect the townspeople a bit of prior mental illness. Too many people, too little contact, this formula can be used to break the location in the city. “This social Stress is from my point of view, from the simultaneity of social density, Overcrowding and social Isolation,” says stress researcher, Mazda Adli of the Fliedner Klinik Berlin and the Charité. If you, for example, live in a cramped Council flat, where you can’t hear the TV, the other through the thin walls, the neighbors know, then you feel not belonging. “If this, then even a very low level of ‘environmental mastery’ – the feeling that you have the environment under control – come on, it’s difficult.”
The study from Aarhus close an important information gap on the impact of Green on health, says Adli. In addition to the question, what is the Green doing with the brain, to stay open, what is the level of green areas is sufficient, “Which Green is green enough? It is sufficient to have a Lawn or live in the vicinity or it is necessary to use the active? Rich trees, or it must be actually a forest?”, asks Adli. This is a crucial question, as in cities for effective Green can be.
