Clinical Study The Effect of Park and Urban Environments on Coronary Artery Disease Patients: A Randomized Trial

Aim. To test the hypothesis that walking in a park has a greater positive effect on coronary artery disease (CAD) patients' hemodynamic parameters than walking in an urban environment. Methods. Twenty stable CAD patients were randomized into two groups: 30-minute walk on 7 consecutive days in either a city park or busy urban street. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was employed to study short-term (30 min) and cumulative changes (following 7 consecutive days of exposure) in resting hemodynamic parameters in different environments. Results. There were no statistically significant differences in the baseline and peak exercise systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate (HR), exercise duration, or HR recovery in urban versus park exposure groups. Seven days of walking slightly improved all hemodynamic parameters in both groups. Compared to baseline, the city park group exhibited statistically significantly greater reductions in HR and DBP and increases in exercise duration and HR recovery. The SBP and DBP changes in the urban exposed group were lower than in the park exposed group. Conclusions. Walking in a park had a greater positive effect on CAD patients' cardiac function than walking in an urban environment, suggesting that rehabilitation through walking in green environments after coronary events should be encouraged

Natural outdoor environments and mental health: Stress as a possible mechanism.

INTRODUCTION Better mental health has been associated with exposure to natural outdoor environments (NOE). However, comprehensive studies including several indicators of exposure and outcomes, potential effect modifiers and mediators are scarce. OBJECTIVES We used novel, objective measures to explore the relationships between exposure to NOE (i.e. residential availability and contact) and different indicators of mental health, and possible modifiers and mediators. METHODS A nested cross-sectional study was conducted in: Barcelona, Spain; Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom; Doetinchem, Netherlands; Kaunas, Lithuania. Participants' exposure to NOE (including both surrounding greenness and green and/or blue spaces) was measured in terms of (a) amount in their residential environment (using Geographical Information Systems) and (b) their contact with NOE (using smartphone data collected over seven days). Self-reported information was collected for mental health (psychological wellbeing, sleep quality, vitality, and somatisation), and potential effect modifiers (gender, age, education level, and city) and mediators (perceived stress and social contacts), with additional objective NOE physical activity (potential mediator) derived from smartphone accelerometers. RESULTS Analysis of data from 406 participants showed no statistically significant associations linking mental health and residential NOE exposure. However, NOE contact, especially surrounding greenness, was statistically significantly tied to better mental health. There were indications that these relationships were stronger for males, younger people, low-medium educated, and Doetinchem residents. Perceived stress was a mediator of most associations, and physical activity and social contacts were not. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that contact with NOE benefits mental health. Our results also suggest that having contact with NOE that can facilitate stress reduction could be particularly beneficial

Urban Environment and Health: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Influence of Environmental Quality and Physical Activity on Blood Pressure

Few studies have examined the relation between urban built environment and the prevalence of hypertension. This cross-sectional study aimed at assessing the relationship between the environmental quality, physical activity, and stress on hypertension among citizens of Kaunas city, Lithuania. We conducted a survey of 1086 citizens residing in 11 districts to determine their perceptions of environmental quality, health behavior, and health indices. The independent variables included residential traffic flows, access to public transportation and green spaces. Dependent variables included physician-diagnosed hypertension, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and stress level. We used multivariable logistic regression to assess the associations as odds ratios (OR). The environmental factors beneficially associated with meeting the physical activity recommendations were opportunities for walking to reach the city’s green spaces and available relaxation areas. Residents of high noise level districts aged 45–64 years had a significantly higher OR of stress and a higher prevalence of hypertension when age, sex, education status, family status, and smoking were accounted for. However, meeting the physical activity recommendations had a beneficial effect on the risk of hypertension. This study provided evidence that improvement of the district-level built environment supporting citizens’ physical activity might reduce the risk of hypertension

The Influence of Proximity to City Parks on Blood Pressure in Early Pregnancy

This study investigated the effect of proximity to city parks on blood pressure categories during the first trimester of pregnancy. This cross-sectional study included 3,416 female residents of the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, who were enrolled in the FP7 PHENOTYPE project study. The women were classified into four blood pressure categories: optimal, normal, high-normal blood pressure, and hypertension. Multinomial regression models were used to investigate the association between three women’s groups with respect to the residence distances from city parks (300, >300–1,000, and >1,000 m) and four blood pressure categories. When using the optimal blood pressure as the reference group, the crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) for normal blood pressure and for high-normal blood pressure proved to be statistically significantly higher after the inclusion of the selected covariates into the regression analysis. The probability of normal blood pressure increased by 9%, and that of high-normal blood pressure—by 14% for every 300 m increase in the distance to green spaces. The findings of this study suggest a beneficial impact of nearby city parks on blood pressure amongst 20- to 45-year-old women. This relationship has important implications for the prevention of hypertension and the reduction of hypertension-related morbidity

Deep-Blue High-Efficiency TTA OLED Using <i>Para</i>- and <i>Meta</i>-Conjugated Cyanotriphenylbenzene and Carbazole Derivatives as Emitter and Host

Elaboration of the appropriate host materials proved to be not less important for the fabrication of a highly efficient OLED than the design of emitters. In the present work, we show how by simple variation of molecular structure both blue emitters exhibiting delayed fluorescence and ambipolar high triplet energy hosts can be obtained. The compounds with a <i>para</i>-junction revealed higher thermal stability (<i>T</i>_ID up to 480 °C), lower ionization potentials (5.51–5.60 eV), exclusively hole transport, and higher photoluminescence quantum efficiencies (0.90–0.97). <i>Meta</i>-linkage leads to ambipolar charge transport and higher triplet energies (2.82 eV). Introduction of the accepting nitrile groups in the <i>para</i>-position induces intensive delayed fluorescence via a triplet–triplet annihilation up-conversion mechanism. By utilization of the <i>para</i>-substituted derivative as an emitter and the <i>meta</i>-substituted isomer as the host, a deep-blue OLED with the external quantum efficiency of 14.1% was fabricated

Living close to natural outdoor environments in four european cities: adults' contact with the environments and physical activity

This study investigated whether residential availability of natural outdoor environments (NOE) was associated with contact with NOE, overall physical activity and physical activity in NOE, in four different European cities using objective measures. A nested cross-sectional study was conducted in Barcelona (Spain); Stoke-on-Trent (United Kingdom); Doetinchem (The Netherlands); and Kaunas (Lithuania). Smartphones were used to collect information on the location and physical activity (overall and NOE) of around 100 residents of each city over seven days. We used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to determine residential NOE availability (presence/absence of NOE within 300 m buffer from residence), contact with NOE (time spent in NOE), overall PA (total physical activity), NOE PA (total physical activity in NOE). Potential effect modifiers were investigated. Participants spent around 40 min in NOE and 80 min doing overall PA daily, of which 11% was in NOE. Having residential NOE availability was consistently linked with higher NOE contact during weekdays, but not to overall PA. Having residential NOE availability was related to NOE PA, especially for our Barcelona participants, people that lived in a city with low NOE availability.This study was funded from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013) under grant agreement No: 282996 (ENV.2011.1.2.3-2). Margarita Triguero-Mas is funded by a pre-doctoral grant from the Catalan Government (AGAUR FI-DGR-2013

Living Close to Natural Outdoor Environments in Four European Cities: Adults' Contact with the Environments and Physical Activity.

This study investigated whether residential availability of natural outdoor environments (NOE) was associated with contact with NOE, overall physical activity and physical activity in NOE, in four different European cities using objective measures. A nested cross-sectional study was conducted in Barcelona (Spain); Stoke-on-Trent (United Kingdom); Doetinchem (The Netherlands); and Kaunas (Lithuania). Smartphones were used to collect information on the location and physical activity (overall and NOE) of around 100 residents of each city over seven days. We used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to determine residential NOE availability (presence/absence of NOE within 300 m buffer from residence), contact with NOE (time spent in NOE), overall PA (total physical activity), NOE PA (total physical activity in NOE). Potential effect modifiers were investigated. Participants spent around 40 min in NOE and 80 min doing overall PA daily, of which 11% was in NOE. Having residential NOE availability was consistently linked with higher NOE contact during weekdays, but not to overall PA. Having residential NOE availability was related to NOE PA, especially for our Barcelona participants, people that lived in a city with low NOE availability

Living close to natural outdoor environments in four european cities: adults' contact with the environments and physical activity

This study investigated whether residential availability of natural outdoor environments (NOE) was associated with contact with NOE, overall physical activity and physical activity in NOE, in four different European cities using objective measures. A nested cross-sectional study was conducted in Barcelona (Spain); Stoke-on-Trent (United Kingdom); Doetinchem (The Netherlands); and Kaunas (Lithuania). Smartphones were used to collect information on the location and physical activity (overall and NOE) of around 100 residents of each city over seven days. We used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to determine residential NOE availability (presence/absence of NOE within 300 m buffer from residence), contact with NOE (time spent in NOE), overall PA (total physical activity), NOE PA (total physical activity in NOE). Potential effect modifiers were investigated. Participants spent around 40 min in NOE and 80 min doing overall PA daily, of which 11% was in NOE. Having residential NOE availability was consistently linked with higher NOE contact during weekdays, but not to overall PA. Having residential NOE availability was related to NOE PA, especially for our Barcelona participants, people that lived in a city with low NOE availability.This study was funded from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013) under grant agreement No: 282996 (ENV.2011.1.2.3-2). Margarita Triguero-Mas is funded by a pre-doctoral grant from the Catalan Government (AGAUR FI-DGR-2013