Greenness and Hospitalization for Cardiorespiratory Diseases in Brazil

The potential health benefits of exposure to vegetation, or greenness, are well documented, but there are few nationwide studies in Brazil, a country facing challenges related to land-use planning, deforestation, and environmental health risks.

In this study, we investigated the association between greenness and hospitalizations for cardiorespiratory diseases in Brazil.

We accessed hospital admissions data from 967,771 postal codes (a total of 26,724,624 admissions) covering Brazil for the period between 2008 and 2018. We used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to measure greenness at the postal-code level. First, we applied a quasi-Poisson regression model to estimate the association between greenness and hospitalizations for circulatory and respiratory diseases, adjusted for air pollution, weather variables, and area-level socioeconomic status. We stratified the analyzes by sex, age group, health outcome, and Brazilian regions. In the second stage, we performed a meta-analysis to estimate pooled effects across the Brazilian regions.

The national meta-analysis for the whole population, incorporating both urban and nonurban areas, showed that higher levels of greenness were associated with a lower risk of hospitalizations for circulatory diseases. An interquartile range ($$) increase in average NDVI was associated with a 17% (95% confidence interval: 8%, 27%) lower risk of cardiovascular admissions. In contrast, there was no association found between greenness and respiratory admissions. When specifically examining urban areas, the results remained consistent with the overall findings. However, the analyses of nonurban areas revealed divergent results, suggesting that higher levels of greenness in rural regions are associated with a lower risk of hospital admissions for both circulatory and respiratory diseases.

The findings emphasize the importance of prioritizing the preservation and creation of green spaces in urban areas as a means of promoting cardiovascular health in Brazil. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP13442.