Direct contact with nature impacted on citizen’s health during Covid-19 lockdown, experts say

A study by the Public Health Institute of the University of Porto (ISPUP), in partnership with the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology da Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), showed that contact with natural settings during the first lockdown, in Portugal and in Spain, had a positive impact on people’s health.

The Portuguese-Spanish research team concluded that contact with green spaces or maritime landscapes was adamant to reducing stress and other psychological distress among those required to stay at home to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The research themed ‘Exposure to nature and mental health outcomes during COVID-19 lockdown. A comparison between Portugal and Spain’ was published in the Environment International magazine. The study was carried out in 2020, between March and May.

Ana Isabel Ribeiro, researcher at the ISPUP and first author of the study, jointly with Margarita Triguero-Mas, of ICTA-UAB, stated to UP News Portal that “we decided to study if natural environments, public and private, had a positive effect in the mental health of both Portuguese and Spanish citizens, by helping them to better cope with the negative effects of lockdown”.

The research included the implementation of an online survey, between 27 March and 6 May 2020, targeted at all citizens aged 18 or older, residing in Portugal and in Spain, during that lockdown period. The survey questions included inquiries on how often individuals would be in contact with blue-green natural spaces (public and private), before and after the first lockdown, questions on mental health, to assess stress levels, mental distress and psychosomatic symptoms, as well as sociodemographic aspects.

The results of this study showed that citizens who were able to maintain or increase contact with natural settings presented lower stress levels, compared to those who did not have contact with a natural environment. Similarly, those who had the opportunity to contemplate natural settings from their households also showed lower stress levels.

According to Ana Isabel Ribeiro, “this study clearly demonstrates the benefits of natural surroundings for the population’s mental health in a context of public health crisis”. As such, “public authorities and decision makers could implement measures that would ease access to natural settings, in a controlled and safe manner, in a pandemic context. This is all the more true when we are talking about the most vulnerable segments of the population, both at social and economic levels, as they do not have direct access to a private natural setting”, enhances the ISPUP researcher.

The researchers that have participated in this study are part of the following institutions: ISPUP, Laboratório para a Investigação Integrativa e Translacional em Saúde Populacional (ITR), Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB), Mariana Arcaya’s research lab (DUSP-MIT), Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário do Porto and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.