Study: Mental health boosted by outdoors

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A recent study out of the University of Colorado at Boulder provides empirical proof to claims heard widely at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: The outdoors were a guard against anguish.

Researchers surveyed 1,200 residents around Denver and rated depression and anxiety “scores” to draw correlations with time in green spaces. Among those who surrounded themselves with nature more, mental troubles were found to be “significantly less.”

From the survey period running throughout 2020, researchers determined 33 percent of respondents got outside more often than they did before the pandemic. The more time outside, the lower the depression and anxiety score, researchers found.

Said one, CU master’s student Emma Rieves, in a news release: “It’s not just about being able to see trees from your home. The amount, quality and accessibility of that green space matters.”

The study weighed that amount and quality with satellite imaging. Also considered were sociodemographics; much has been written about wealthier people living closer to greater open space.

“For our survey population, we targeted neighborhoods with differing levels of greenness and median income levels with the intent of decoupling in our sample the known relationships between urban green space and socioeconomic status,” the study reads.

The message was the same: “Spend more time outside,” Rieves said. “Pandemic or no pandemic, it’s good for your mental health.”