2025 / Health and well-being, Health risk behaviors

Nature Contact and Health Risk Behaviours: Results From an 18 Country Study

Citation

Martin, L., White, M. P., Pahl, S., May, J., Newton, J. N., Elliott, L. R., Cirach, M., Grellier, J., Bratman, G. N., Gascon, M., Lima, M. L., Nieuwenhuijsen, M., Ojala, A., Roiko, A., van den Bosch, M., & Fleming, L. E. (2025). Nature contact and health risk behaviours: Results from an 18 country study. Health & Place, 94. doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2025.103479

Link to file

Research from 18 countries shows that people who live near more green space, like parks or trees, are less likely to smoke or drink alcohol every day. The study looked at two kinds of nature contact: how much greenery people have around their homes and how often they visit natural spaces.

The results showed that having more green space near home was linked to both less smoking and less daily drinking. People who visited nature at least once a week were also less likely to smoke, but this didn’t affect daily drinking. This suggests that adding more green space to neighborhoods could help reduce unhealthy habits, and encouraging regular nature visits might help people quit smoking.

Abstract

Cover of the Journal Health & PlaceEmerging evidence suggests that residential greenspace is associated with a lower prevalence of health risk behaviours, but it remains unclear whether these effects are generalizable across countries or different types of nature contact. Using representative cross-sectional samples from 18 countries/regions, we examined the associations between two types of nature contact (greenspace, nature visits), current smoking and everyday drinking. After controlling for a range of covariates, greenspace was inversely associated with current smoking and everyday drinking. Visiting natural spaces at least once a week was linked to a lower prevalence of current smoking, but unrelated to everyday drinking. Increasing residential greenspace could be a promising strategy for reducing multiple health risk behaviours, whilst visit-based interventions may be a more appropriate target for smoking cessation.

Highlights

  • Examined the links between nature and health-risk behaviours in 18 countries.
  • Greenspace predicted lower current smoking and exceeding alcohol guidelines.
  • Weekly nature visits were associated with a lower prevalence of current smoking.
  • Greenspace-behaviour associations were largely consistent between countries.