1. Surrounding greenness, proximity to city parks and pregnancy outcomes in Kaunas cohort study
- Author
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Asta Danileviciute, Audrius Dedele, Jone Vencloviene, Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, Sandra Andrusaityte, Inga Uždanaviciute, and Regina Grazuleviciene
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Urban Population ,Parks, Recreational ,Distance to park ,Color ,Gestational Age ,Environment ,010501 environmental sciences ,Logistic regression ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ,Fetal Development ,Young Adult ,Effect modification ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Pregnancy ,Environmental protection ,Odds Ratio ,medicine ,Birth Weight ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Cities ,Pregnancy outcomes ,Surrounding greenness ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Reproductive health ,Green space ,business.industry ,Infant, Newborn ,Pregnancy Outcome ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Gestational age ,Lithuania ,Infant, Low Birth Weight ,Plants ,Low birth weight ,Geography ,Adverse pregnancy outcomes ,Premature Birth ,Female ,medicine.symptom ,business ,Cohort study ,Demography - 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 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.
- Published
- 2015
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