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Surrounding greenness, proximity to city parks and pregnancy outcomes in Kaunas cohort study
Gražulevičienė, Regina Danileviciute, Asta Dedele, Audrius Vencloviene, Jone Andrusaityte, Sandra Uzdanaviciute, Inga Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark
Gražulevičienė, Regina
Danileviciute, Asta
Dedele, Audrius
Vencloviene, Jone
Andrusaityte, Sandra
Uzdanaviciute, Inga
Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark
Abstract
There is increasing evidence that green space can improve the health and well-being of urban residents. However, there has been no consistent evidence of the effect of city parks on reproductive health. We investigated whether surrounding greenness levels and/or distance to city parks affect birth outcomes. This study was based on 3292 singleton live-births from the Kaunas birth cohort, Lithuania (2007–2009), who were enrolled in the FP7 PHENOTYPE project study. Residential surrounding greenness level was ascertained as average of satellite-based normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) within buffers of 100 m, 300 m, and 500 m of each maternal home and distance to a city park was defined as distance to boundaries of the nearest city park. For each indicator of green space exposure, linear or logistic regression models were constructed to estimate change in birth outcomes adjusted for relevant covariates. An increase in distance to a city parks was associated with an increase in risk of preterm birth and decrease of gestational age. We found a statistically significant association between low surrounding greenness and term low birth weight. After assessing effect modification based on the low surrounding greenness (NDVI-500 < median) and the distance to city parks (>1000 m), we found increased risks for low birth weight (OR 2.23, 1.20–4.15), term low birth weight (OR 2.97, 1.04–8.45) and preterm birth (OR 1.77, 1.10–2.81) for subjects with low surrounding greenness and farther distance from a park. Both higher surrounding greenness level and proximity to park have beneficial effects on pregnancy outcomes. A beneficial park effect on foetal growth is most apparent in the environment with low surrounding greenness level. Further investigation is needed to confirm this association.
Keywords
Green space, Surrounding greenness, Distance to park, Adverse pregnancy outcomes, Effect modification
Date
2015
Type
Journal article
Journal
International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
Book
Volume
218
Issue
3
Page Range
358-365
Article Number
ACU Department
Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled