According to a study led by University of Exeter researcher Daniel Cox, people living in neighborhoods with more birds, shrubs and trees are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and stress.
Watching birds near your home is good for mental health. Image credit: Tim Felce / CC BY-SA 2.0.
Dr. Cox and his colleagues from the University of Maryland, the University of Queensland in Australia, the British Trust for Ornithology and the University of Exeter in the UK, surveyed mental health in 263 people from different ages, incomes and ethnicities.
“All the participants lived within the urban limits of the so-called ‘Cranfield triangle,’ a region in southern England, UK, comprising the three adjacent towns of Milton Keynes, Luton, and Bedford,” the researchers said.
They found benefits for mental health of being able to see birds, shrubs and trees around the home, whether people lived in urban or more leafy suburban neighborhoods. They also found that those who spent less time out of doors than usual in the previous week were more likely to report they were anxious or depressed.
“Experiences of nature provide many mental-health benefits, particularly for people living in urban areas. The natural characteristics of city residents’ neighborhoods are likely to be crucial determinants of the daily nature dose that they receive,” the scientists said.
“We demonstrated that of five neighborhood nature characteristics tested, vegetation cover and afternoon bird abundances were positively associated with a lower prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress.”
After conducting extensive surveys of the number of birds in the morning and afternoon in the study area, Dr. Cox and co-authors found that lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress were associated with the number of birds people could see in the afternoon.
The team studied afternoon bird numbers — which tend to be lower than birds generally seen in the morning — because are more in keeping with the number of birds that people are likely to see in their neighborhood on a daily basis.
In the study, common types of birds including blackbirds, robins, blue tits and crows were seen.
But the team did not find a relationship between the species of birds and mental health, but rather the number of birds people could see from their windows, in the garden or in their neighborhood.
Previous studies have found that the ability of most people to identify different species is low, suggesting that for most people it is interacting with birds, not just specific birds, that provides well-being.
“Our study starts to unpick the role that some key components of nature play for our mental well-being,” Dr. Cox said.
“Birds around the home, and nature in general, show great promise in preventative health care, making cities healthier, happier places to live.”
“Although the causes and drivers of poor mental health are diverse, this study suggests that even low levels of key components of neighborhood nature can be associated with better mental health, providing promise for preventative health approaches,” the researchers said.
The findings were published in the February 2017 issue of the journal BioScience.
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Daniel T.C. Cox et al. 2017. Doses of Neighborhood Nature: The Benefits for Mental Health of Living with Nature. BioScience 67 (2): 147-155; doi: 10.1093/biosci/biw173
This article is based on a press-release from the University of Exeter.
