2.4 KiB
2.4 KiB
Recreation
Various forms of recreational activities are strongly associated with physical and mental health benefits — go for a walk outside
- Pressman et al. 10
- Leisure activities are an important contribution to wellbeing.
- These positive effects include:
- lower blood pressure
- lower total cortisol
- shorter waist circumference
- lower body mass index
- better perceptions of better physical function
- “Enjoyable leisure activities, taken in the aggregate, are associated with psychosocial and physical measures relevant for health and well-being.”
- Cox et al. 17 (cited)
- Nearby nature that people actually experience is beneficial to mental health
- "Of five neighborhood nature characteristics tested, vegetation cover and afternoon bird abundances were positively associated with a lower prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress."
- From cited: "The positive association between birds, shrubs and trees and better mental health applied, even after controlling for variation in neighbourhood deprivation, household income, age and a wide range of other socio-demographic factors."
- This study also references several others which come to similar conclusions about the effects of various environmental factors on wellbeing.
- Flavin 19 (cited)
- Americans are happier in states that spend more on public goods
- "Robust evidence [suggests] that citizens report living happier lives when their state spends more (relative to the size of a state's economy) on providing public goods"
- This includes libraries, parks and recreation, natural resources, highways (only regular, not toll), and police protection
- Sahakian et al. 20 (cited)
- Study of an international team of researchers in several Asian cities
- Parks play are essential in the wellbeing of individuals and cannot be replaced by other venues of social interaction, such as malls or shopping centers