TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of freshwater blue spaces may be beneficial for mental health
T2 - A first, ecological study in the North American Great Lakes region
AU - Pearson, Amber L.
AU - Shortridge, Ashton
AU - Delamater, Paul L.
AU - Horton, Teresa H.
AU - Dahlin, Kyla
AU - Rzotkiewicz, Amanda
AU - Marchiori, Michael J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work received funding support for MM from Michigan State University?s Provost Initative for Undergraduate Research. AP, AS and PD received support from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Certificate of Need Section. MDHHS had no role in the research design, dissemination of the results, or decision to publish the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Pearson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Research linking green space and mental health abounds. It also appears that oceanic blue spaces may be salutogenic, benefitting mental health through their expansive viewscapes, and possibly auditory and olfactory stimuli. Yet, it is unknown whether the same is true for freshwater bodies. In this ecological study, we explored associations between hospitalizations for anxiety/mood disorder in Michigan (>30,000) and proximity to the North American Great Lakes. As a sensitivity analysis, we examined associations for 15 different inland lake sizes. Results showed small, protective effects for distance to Great Lake (β = 0.06, p<0.001) and percentage of inland lakes (β = -0.04, p = 0.004). Unexpectedly, shorter distance to nearest inland lake was associated with higher anxiety/mood disorder hospitalizations. The protective effects of percentage area covered by inland lakes was observed for all lake sizes. These initial findings provide a foundation for future individual-level research with finer measurement of health outcomes and blue space exposure.
AB - Research linking green space and mental health abounds. It also appears that oceanic blue spaces may be salutogenic, benefitting mental health through their expansive viewscapes, and possibly auditory and olfactory stimuli. Yet, it is unknown whether the same is true for freshwater bodies. In this ecological study, we explored associations between hospitalizations for anxiety/mood disorder in Michigan (>30,000) and proximity to the North American Great Lakes. As a sensitivity analysis, we examined associations for 15 different inland lake sizes. Results showed small, protective effects for distance to Great Lake (β = 0.06, p<0.001) and percentage of inland lakes (β = -0.04, p = 0.004). Unexpectedly, shorter distance to nearest inland lake was associated with higher anxiety/mood disorder hospitalizations. The protective effects of percentage area covered by inland lakes was observed for all lake sizes. These initial findings provide a foundation for future individual-level research with finer measurement of health outcomes and blue space exposure.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0221977
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0221977
M3 - Article
C2 - 31469889
AN - SCOPUS:85071458035
VL - 14
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 8
M1 - e0221977
ER -
