More Green, Less Lonely? A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Background

Green spaces in cities might help reduce loneliness by giving people places to find peace, reconnect with others, and relieve stress. This study looked at two things:

1. Whether people who lived near more green space were less likely to become lonely over four years, and
2. Whether green space helped people recover from loneliness.

The researchers also checked whether the results differed by age, sex, disability, or whether someone lived alone.

Methods

The study followed 8,049 city residents in Australia between 2013 and 2017, using data from a large national survey. The researchers measured how much green space — like parks — each person had within about 400 meters, 800 meters, and 1.6 kilometers of their home. They accounted for factors like age, sex, disability, whether someone lived alone or had children, and income. They then calculated how much a 10% increase in neighborhood greening might lower a person’s risk of becoming lonely.

Results

Over the four years, the overall risk of loneliness rose slightly — from about 16% to 17%. But people who lived near more green space were less likely to become lonely in the first place. For every 10% increase in green space within about 1.6 kilometers of home, the risk of becoming lonely dropped by about 0.66%. The effect was even stronger for people living alone.

Compared to people with very little green space near home (less than 10%), those with more green space saw bigger benefits:

• People with 10–20% green space nearby had about a 1.7% lower risk of becoming lonely.
• People with 20–30% green space had about a 2.3% lower risk.
• People with more than 30% green space had about a 2.7% lower risk.

For people living alone, the benefits were even larger. Those with 10–20% green space nearby had a much lower risk of becoming lonely, and those with more than 30% green space saw the strongest protection.

The study did not find that green space helped people recover from loneliness they already felt. And the results did not differ by age, sex, or disability. Green space within shorter distances (400 or 800 meters) did not show the same effect.

Conclusions

People who lived within about 1.6 kilometers of more green space were less likely to become lonely over time — especially those living alone. The reasons behind this link are not yet clear and deserve more research.

Abstract

Background

Urban greening may reduce loneliness by offering opportunities for solace, social reconnection and supporting processes such as stress relief. We (i) assessed associations between residential green space and cumulative incidence of, and relief from, loneliness over 4 years; and (ii) explored contingencies by age, sex, disability and cohabitation status.

Methods

Multilevel logistic regressions of change in loneliness status in 8049 city-dwellers between 2013 (baseline) and 2017 (follow-up) in the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia study. Associations with objectively measured discrete green-space buffers (e.g. parks) (<400, <800 and <1600 m) were adjusted for age, sex, disability, cohabitation status, children and socio-economic variables. Results were translated into absolute risk reductions in loneliness per 10% increase in urban greening.

Results

The absolute risk of loneliness rose from 15.9% to 16.9% over the 4 years; however, a 10% increase in urban greening within 1.6 km was associated with lower cumulative incident loneliness [odds ratio (OR) = 0.927, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.862 to 0.996; absolute risk reduction = 0.66%]. Stronger association was observed for people living alone (OR = 0.828, 95% CI = 0.725 to 0.944). In comparison to people with <10% green space, the ORs for cumulative incident loneliness were 0.833 (95% CI = 0.695 to 0.997), 0.790 (95% CI = 0.624 to 1.000) and 0.736 (95% CI = 0.549 to 0.986) for 10–20%, 20–30% and >30% green space, respectively. Compared with the <10% green-space reference group with 13.78% incident loneliness over 4 years and conservatively assuming no impact on incident loneliness, associations translated into absolute risk reductions of 1.70%, 2.26% and 2.72% within populations with 10–20%, 20–30% and >30% green space, respectively. These associations were stronger again for people living alone, with 10–20% (OR = 0.608, 95% CI = 0.448 to 0.826), 20–30% (OR = 0.649, 95% CI = 0.436 to 0.966) and >30% (OR = 0.480, 95% CI = 0.278 to 0.829) green space within 1600 m. No age, sex or disability-related contingencies, associations with green space within 400 or 800 m or relief from loneliness reported at baseline were observed.

Conclusions

A lower cumulative incidence of loneliness was observed among people with more green space within 1600 m of home, especially for people living alone. Potential biopsychosocial mechanisms warrant investigation.