Access and Use of Green and Blue Spaces for Memory and Physical Health

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic exacerbated mental and physical health issues in the United States. Due to various lockdown procedures to curb the spread of the virus, indoor gatherings were severely restricted, intensifying stress and anxiety.

We used nationally representative data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey sampled from the National Opinion Research Center's AmeriSpeak panel. To explore pandemic-safe options to relieve negative health outcomes, we studied how access to and use of green and blue spaces were related to self-rated physical and mental health (ie, memory) during the pandemic.

Most of the logistic regressions show no relationships between access to green or blue spaces and the health outcomes (except for access to blue spaces and physical health), but we find positive associations between use of green and blue spaces with overall physical health and memory.

Access to green or blue spaces is not necessarily enough to create a relationship with overall physical health and memory-actually using these areas is a key component to their association with positive health outcomes.