Environmental Health Perspectives (advance publication date July 2014), published “Residential Greenness and Birth Outcomes: Evaluating the Influence of Spatially Correlated Built-Environment Factors” by Perry Hystad, Hugh W. Davies, Lawrence Frank, Josh Van Loon, Ulrike Gehring, Lillian Tamburic, and Michael Brauer.
Short title: “Residential Greenness and Birth Outcomes.” The article is here.
From the Abstract:
“Methods: We examined associations between residential greenness … (… within 100 meters of study participants’ homes) and birth outcomes in a cohort of 64,705 singleton births (from 1999–2002) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada … after adjusting for … exposure to air pollution and noise, neighbourhood walkability, and distance to the nearest park.
Results: An … increase in greenness … was associated with higher term birth weight (20.6 grams; 95% CI: 16.5, 24.7) and decreases in the likelihood of … very preterm (<30 weeks), and moderately preterm (30-36 weeks) birth. Associations were robust to adjustment for air pollution and noise exposures, neighbourhood walkability, and park proximity.”
The Vancouver Sun, reprinted in the Ottawa Citizen of September 8, 2014, carried a review of it by Randy Shore. Find it here: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Greener+neighbourhoods+produce+bigger+babies/10182930/story.html.
2014-09-15 -ED