Estimating exposure to nature and its relation to human health within the Nurses' Health Study Cohorts

摘要

Exposure to nature may influence health by buffering exposure to air pollution, noise, and extreme temperatures; providing opportunities for physical activity; creating a setting for social interactions; or directly improving mood and cognitive restoration. Using data from the nationwide Nurses' Health Study prospective cohorts (N～237,000), we have linked measures of exposure to nature to health outcomes, including physical activity, mental health, cancer, and mortality. We have spatially joined nationwide satellite data on greenspace to the geocoded home addresses of participants for up to 30 years of follow-up to create time-varying metrics of long term exposure to natural environments. We are also working to incorporate higher resolution measures of nature derived from aerial photos (green space, tree cover, water) at 1 meter resolution to our cohorts. Finally, we are working to incorporate mobile health technology into our cohorts to better understand high spatio-temporal resolution exposure to green spaces at the minute-level using smartphones and accelerometry-based devices.