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Nature-based solutions including urban forests and wetlands can help communities cope better with climate change and other environmental stressors by enhancing social-ecological resilience. Natural ecosystems, settings, elements and affordances can also help individuals become more personally resilient to a variety of stressors, although the mechanisms underpinning individual-level nature-based resilience, and their relations to social-ecological resilience, are not well articulated. We propose 'nature-based biopsychosocial resilience theory' (NBRT) to address these gaps. Our framework begins by suggesting that individual-level resilience can refer to both: a) a person's set of adaptive resources ; and b) the processes by which these resources are deployed. Drawing on existing nature-health perspectives, we argue that nature contact can support individuals build and maintain biological, psychological, and social (i.e. biopsychosocial) resilience-related resources. Together with nature-based social-ecological resilience, these biopsychosocial resilience resources can: i) reduce the risk of various stressors (preventive resilience); ii) enhance adaptive reactions to stressful circumstances (response resilience), and/or iii) facilitate more rapid and/or complete recovery from stress (recovery resilience). Reference to these three resilience processes supports integration across more familiar pathways involving harm reduction, capacity building, and restoration. Evidence in support of the theory, potential interventions to promote nature-based biopsychosocial resilience, and issues that require further consideration are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic-related exposures may undermine the restorative character of the home, and this may in turn undermine health and residential satisfaction. We addressed this possibility with data for adults residing in a large valley near Innsbruck, Austria (N=572). We joined objective measures of traffic-related sound and air pollutants with reports from door-to-door surveys concerning perceived disturbance from traffic-related exposures, restorative qualities of the living environment, self-perceived health and residential satisfaction. We analyzed these data with successive tests of nested structural equation models, with and without the restorative quality variables. The results suggest that the negative impact of traffic-related exposures on self-perceived health and satisfaction with the living environment involves the constraint of restorative qualities of the living environment, over and above the share traditionally attributed to such exposures viewed as stressors. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the distinction between environmental stressors and constraints on restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of how to increase the restorative quality of residential streetscapes may help to offset problems entailed by urban densification. The present study considered the effects of trees, grass, and flower beds on ratings of restoration likelihood for streetscapes. We used digital-imaging techniques to systematically vary these natural elements in images of residential streets with different architectural characteristics. Using a web-based procedure, 103 images were rated by independent groups of Icelandic adults ( N = 188) on either restoration likelihood, preference, being away, or fascination. Group mean scores on the psychological variables were calculated for each image, and the images were then used as the units of analysis in regression analyses. Ratings of restoration likelihood increased with increase in the number of street trees and the presence of flower beds. These effects were apparently mediated by perceptions of being away and fascination. The architectural characteristics of buildings along the streets had a strong independent effect on restoration likelihood ratings, but they did not moderate the positive effects of vegetation on restoration likelihood ratings. The results provide guidance for the design of more psychologically sustainable urban residential environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In higher latitudes, relatively cold summer weather may constrain outdoor activities that provide relief from chronic stress. Chronic stress can affect human birth outcomes, including the length of gestation and so the birth weight of the infant. We tested the hypothesis that, in Sweden, the odds of very low birth weight (VLBW; <1500g) vary inversely with mean monthly temperature for the summer months. We applied time-series modeling methods to nationally aggregated data on singleton births during the 456 months from January, 1973, through December, 2010. We found elevated odds of VLBW among male infants for relatively cold June and August temperatures. Unpleasant weather may figure in stress-related health outcomes, not only as a stressor, but also as a constraint on restoration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Many studies have supported the proposition that natural environments contribute positively to psychological restoration. Less attention has been given to the relative importance of the physical environmental components that contribute to the restorative potential of such environments. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relative importance of environmental components, in small urban parks, for people looking for somewhere to sit down and rest. To address this aim, we used choice-based conjoint analysis, coupled with hierarchical Bayes estimation, to assess the utilities assigned to grass, bushes, trees, flower beds, water features, and the number of other people in the park. Via a web-based questionnaire, adult residents of Oslo, Norway (N =154) were presented with text describing successive pairs of park alternatives. Each alternative was comprised of a set of environmental components at different levels. The respondents were to choose the preferred alternative in each pair, given that they were fatigued and looking for a place to rest for a little while. The amounts of grass, trees and other people had the most influence on their choices among park alternatives. Responses across groups defined by age, gender and earlier experience with parks and nature were relatively homogenous. From a planning perspective, the findings indicate the importance of focusing on structural components such as grass and trees rather than decorative components such as flowers and water features. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: People who perform paid work may benefit from psychological restoration afforded by a leisure home and its natural surroundings. This may hinder the development of some forms of life-threatening illness. Using longitudinal register data for 108,114 employed Swedes, we assessed the prospective association between leisure home ownership and death before age 65. Among men, but not among women, leisure home owners had lower odds of early death, after adjustment for sociodemographic and residential characteristics (OR=0.875, 95% CI=0.702–0.980). The results bear on natural environments as health resources, inform debate on urban densification, and broaden the discussion of residence and health [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Positive environmental determinants of exercise frequency remain poorly understood. Knowing that people often value exercise for psychological restoration, we investigated the restorative quality of indoor and outdoor exercise settings as predictors of exercise frequency. We surveyed 319 members of fitness centers in Zurich that offer indoor and outdoor exercise alternatives. Outdoor settings were rated as more restorative. For each type of environment, restorative quality predicted the frequency of exercise in the past 30 days, independent of socio-demographic characteristics, expectations of exercise benefits, and personal barriers. We discuss the results with regard to the provision of exercise settings for urban populations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objectives: Outdoor environments might amplify or hinder psychological benefits of exercise. Using types of outdoor environment commonly available for exercise, we assessed the moderating effect of environment on attentional and emotional restoration during a run.Design: We conducted a field experiment with environment (park, urban), occasion (first run, second run), and time (pre-run, post-run) as within-subjects factors, and gender as a between-subjects factor.Methods: Twelve regular runners (6 female, 6 male; mean age = 39.7 years) provided self-reports of emotions and behavioral measures of attention before and after each of two 1-hour runs in each of the two environments. The routes differed in amount of greenery, proximity to water, and presence of traffic, buildings, and other people. We also obtained background measures of stress and evaluations of the running environments.Results: Characteristic of restoration, running reduced anxiety/depression and anger. It had inconsistent effects on attention. No Time x Environment interactions reached statistical significance. However, those for tranquility and anxiety/depression had medium-sized effects (rs &ap; 0.30) and were consistent with the hypothesis that the park would promote restoration while running to a greater degree than the urban environment. The runners preferred the park over the urban environment and perceived it as more psychologically restorative.Conclusions: The findings encourage replication with greater statistical power. The study provides a point of departure for further research on potential moderating effects of commonly accessible outdoor environments on the psychological benefits of exercise. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Biodiversity underpins human health as an essential life-support system. • We present an integrated biodiversity-health framework. • Biodiversity influences human health via four domains of pathways. • The four pathway domains are: reducing harm, restoring capacities, building capacities, and causing harm. • Understanding biodiversity-health pathways can inform public health interventions. Biodiversity is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. However, while evidence of the contributions of nature to human health is rapidly building, research into how biodiversity relates to human health remains limited in important respects. In particular, a better mechanistic understanding of the range of pathways through which biodiversity can influence human health is needed. These pathways relate to both psychological and social processes as well as biophysical processes. Building on evidence from across the natural, social and health sciences, we present a conceptual framework organizing the pathways linking biodiversity to human health. Four domains of pathways—both beneficial as well as harmful—link biodiversity with human health: (i) reducing harm (e.g. provision of medicines, decreasing exposure to air and noise pollution); (ii) restoring capacities (e.g. attention restoration, stress reduction); (iii) building capacities (e.g. promoting physical activity, transcendent experiences); and (iv) causing harm (e.g. dangerous wildlife, zoonotic diseases, allergens). We discuss how to test components of the biodiversity-health framework with available analytical approaches and existing datasets. In a world with accelerating declines in biodiversity, profound land-use change, and an increase in non-communicable and zoonotic diseases globally, greater understanding of these pathways can reinforce biodiversity conservation as a strategy for the promotion of health for both people and nature. We conclude by identifying research avenues and recommendations for policy and practice to foster biodiversity-focused public health actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Outpatient prescription medication spending in Sweden has increased sharply since 1974. The Swedish government has raised copayments to reduce medication consumption and limit the growth of medication spending.Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the 1995 and 1997 copayment increases on Swedish consumption of antidepressants, anxiolytics, sedatives.Methods: Monthly drug-use data for July 1990 through December 1999 for these 3 pharmaceutical classes were obtained from Apoteket AB (Stockholm, Sweden). Data were provided for both sexes in units of defined daily doses per 1000 inhabitants. These series were analyzed with the use of Box-Jenkins autoregressive, integrated, moving-average time-series modeling methods.Results: Dispensing of all 3 drugs classes increased immediately before copayment changes, with the exception of male sedative use at the time of the 1997 reform. Permanent increases in male antidepressant and sedative use occurred before the 1995 copayment reform. Only female antidepressant use was permanently reduced following the 1997 copayment reform.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that Swedish patients'' valuation of mental health medications exceeds the enacted price increases. The permanent increases in male antidepressant and sedative use, beginning in 1995, may have been the result of previous undertreatment. The permanent reduction in female antidepressant use, beginning in 1997, suggests that the price levels reached a threshold that matched or exceeded Swedish women''s valuation of these modific [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Much medical literature attributes persistently high rates of very low birthweight (VLBW) to “dysregulated” gestation. We offer the alternative view that natural selection conserved well-regulated, though nonconscious, decisional biology that protects the reproductive fitness of women by spontaneously aborting gestations that would otherwise yield frail infants, particularly small males. Modern obstetric practice, however, converts some fraction of these erstwhile spontaneous abortions into live births of very small infants. We further propose that the nonconscious decisional biology of gestation exhibits preferences also seen in consciously made decisions. We hypothesize that the incidence of VLBW among male infants should vary with the population's self-reported intentions to assume financial risk. We apply time-series modeling to monthly birth counts by sex and weight from the Swedish Medical Birth Registry between January 1993 and December 2010. We gauge risk aversion with monthly data from the Micro Index of the Swedish Consumer Tendency Survey (MISCT). Consistent with our argument that nonconscious decisional biology shares risk aversion with conscious decisions, we find that the incidence of VLBW among male infants in Sweden varies with the population's self-reported intentions to assume financial risk. We find increases above expected odds of a very low weight infant among males born 1 month after increases above expected levels of self-reported risk aversion in the Swedish population. We offer this finding as support for the argument that persistently high rates of VLBW arise, at least in part, from a combination of medical interventions and mechanisms conserved by natural selection to protect reproductive fitness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The transport sector presents contentious issues with respect to sustainable development, particularly regarding the use of private motorised vehicles in urban areas. Public transport (PT) together with cycling and walking are generally agreed to be sustainable alternatives to private car use. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of those aspects of PT quality most likely to attract car users. Toward achieving this aim, relevant research was sought to answer the following two questions: What quality attributes of PT services are attractive to users? And what changes in quality attributes of PT services would encourage modal shift from private motor vehicles to PT? Using a qualitative systematic review, it is concluded that while service reliability and frequency are important PT attributes in general, those attributes most effective in attracting car users are largely affective and connected to individual perceptions, motivations and contexts. Reduced fare promotions and other habit-interrupting transport policy measures can succeed in encouraging car users to try PT services initially. Attributes over and above basic accessibility, reliability and mobility provision, perceived by the target market as important service attributes, must then be provided in sustaining the switch from car use after promotional tactics have expired. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]