Green and blue spaces and physical functioning in older adults: Longitudinal analyses of the Whitehall II study.

ABSTRACT: There is increasing evidence of the health benefits of exposure to natural environments, including green and blue spaces. The association with physical functioning and its decline at older age remains to be explored. The aim of the present study was to investigate the longitudinal association between the natural environment and the decline in physical functioning in older adults. We based our analyses on three follow-ups (2002-2013) of the Whitehall II study, including 5759 participants (aged 50 to 74 years at baseline) in the UK. Exposure to natural environments was assessed at each follow-up as (1) residential surrounding greenness across buffers of 500 and 1000 m around the participants' address using satellite-based indices of greenness (Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Normalized D

SUBMITTER: de Keijzer C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6571017 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature