More green space is linked to less stress in deprived communities: Evidence from salivary cortisol patterns

Green space has been associated with a wide range of health benefits, including stress reduction, but much pertinent evidence has relied on self-reported health indicators or experiments in artificially controlled environmental conditions. Little research has been reported using ecologically valid objective measures with participants in their everyday, residential settings. This paper describes the results of an exploratory study (n = 25) to establish whether salivary cortisol can act as a biomarker for variation in stress levels which may be associated with varying levels of exposure to green spaces, and whether recruitment and adherence to the required, unsupervised, salivary cortisol sampling protocol…

• SG
  Scottish Government
• SR
  Sight Research UK

  Awards: NE/E008720/2, NE/E008720/1
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council

  Awards: NE/E008720/2, NE/E008720/1