Green spaces improve health, says study

Living in a green area can improve your health and lengthen your life, according to new research. The study shows that the difference in life expectancy between rich and poor is smaller in areas with parks and trees.

Richard Mitchell, from Glasgow University, and his colleagues, looked at the gap between death rates of people on high incomes and those on low incomes in green areas. They found that the gap was half that compared with figures in built-up city areas.

Mitchell said that the importance of green spaces was greater than he thought. "The size of the difference in the health gap is surprising and represented a much bigger effect than I expected," he said.

Green spaces encourage people to walk and be more active. Exercise in these places could have bigger psychological and health benefits than exercise elsewhere.

The benefits might also go beyond exercise. Studies have shown that being around green spaces can reduce blood pressure and stress levels, and possibly help people heal more quickly after surgery.

A number of researchers have looked at the effects of a green environment on our health, the paper noted. But few studies had looked at whether living in green areas reduced health differences between rich and poor.

The research team said that changing the local environment was an easier way to improve health in poor areas than using TV adverts or giving out health information. "The important message is green spaces are another tool for government to combat the health gap between rich and poor," said Mitchell.

Governments could also save a lot of money in the future by investing in parks, forests and other large green areas. "Promoting outdoor recreation and boosting health can in the long run save on health care spending," added Mitchell.

Lesson Plan

Explain you're going to read an article about improving health. Dictate the first sentence of the article but leave a gap: "Living in a ___ area can improve your health and lengthen your life." Pre-teach the words area and lengthen. - 4 mins

Ask a student to come to the board. The rest of the class dictates the sentence back to this person. Then ask the class to speculate which word goes in the gap. The student writes up the possibilities. Then tell the class that the word is a colour - they guess which one. Finally show the article headline. Ask: What are green areas/spaces? (parks, etc) Why are they important for health? - 5 mins

Pre-teach the following vocabulary: built-up area, death rate, high/low income, life expectancy, gap, research, study. - 7 mins

Write the following sentences on the board. Go through unknown words. Give out copies of the article. Students read and answer the question "Is this statement true or false?" in each case - 12 mins

1. In green areas, there is a bigger gap between the life expectancy of rich and poor.
2. Richard Mitchell was surprised by his research.
3. Green spaces are good because they make people do more exercise.
4. Being near green areas can sometimes increase people's blood pressure.
5. Green spaces can help people get better after surgery.
6. This is the first study to look at the importance of the environment for health.
7. The researchers think the best way to improve health is to show TV adverts.
8. Investing in parks and forests could save the government a lot of money.

Ask students to read through the article again and underline six words/expressions they don't understand. In groups students agree four words they would like to look up. Give out dictionaries. Students check words and write example sentences. Monitor - 12 mins

In paris ask students to write a questionnaire of at least five questions about green areas. For example: Do you think there are enough green areas in our city? Students ask the other students their questions and develop statistics which they report back to the class. For example 80% of the people would like to see more green areas. - 20 mins