Green space and water linked to longer life expectancy in China
A simultaneous 10-percentage-point increase in both green-space and water coverage was associated with 0.968 years higher life expectancy in a county-level analysis.
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Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Populations in 1,898 counties across five major regions of China were studied in an observational analysis spanning 2000 to 2021. Researchers combined national registry data on life expectancy with coverage of green spaces and bodies of water, plus high-resolution estimates of airborne particle pollution.
A simultaneous 10-percentage-point increase in both green-space and water coverage was associated with 0.968 years higher life expectancy. Lower particle pollution statistically explained about 23% of this association. Particles smaller than one micrometer contributed the most among the three particle-size groups examined. The estimated contribution of lower pollution was strongest in Northwest China and weakest in East China.
Why it matters
For efforts to support longer lives, the authors suggested that green-space and water planning could complement direct emissions reductions and may need to account for local conditions.
Caveats
County-level averages could not show whether the people with more nearby green space or water were those who lived longer. Other differences between counties could also have contributed to the association.
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