Do residents of green places live longer?
Posted: May 9, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 CommentIt’s arguable whether greener residential areas reduce mortality but there are plenty of other good reasons to promote planting more trees, especially along streets
Does living in green places extend lifespans?
The Melbourne Urbanist 
DO RESIDENTS OF GREEN PLACES LIVE LONGER?
The life expectancy (LE) of a cohort of residents is definition dependent. There are cohort defined population level LEs of residents in the 31 LGAs of the Melbourne metropolis which vary by up to 5 years. To attempt to conclude that existing green space variation is the primary or even a major cause for different LGA residents having different LEs is an epidemiologist’s ultimate challenge.
Approximate modelling exists to show that out-of-home personal physical activity time spent in active transport impacts on time spent in hospital. So far, by using VATS-VISTA 1994-2014 it has taken rather creative modelling approximations to show that there are some green places that contribute more meaningfully to outdoor personal physical activity in several of the sub-regions of the Melbourne metropolis.
The socio-economic variables influencing residential location remain the dominant indicators of residents LE.