REMEDHY · Researching Environments that Magnify Health Everyday (REMEDHY)
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-09-01 → 2020-11-30
- EU contribution
- €170,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Researching Environments that Magnify Health Everyday (REMEDHY)
The main problem being addressed is the lack of understanding about how perceptions of nature influence health and well-being. The ways in which the built environment is designed can affect residential communities in profound ways. A healthy design can shape how long people stay in their neighborhoods, how they move through their neighborhoods (e.g., walk, bike, public transit, personal automobile), and the ways in which people interact with neighbors and bond with where they live (place attachment). While street connectivity, mixed density, and land use are important factors in explaining some of these behaviors and perceptions, they do not go far enough in explaining the relationship between the built environment and health. What’s missing from this story is an understanding of the mediating factors that link aspects of the built environment to health outcomes. The overall objectives of the REMEDHY project are to examine the neighborhood qualities that shape people’s perceptions of place and, in turn, motivate them to engage with structures in the neighborhood, which promote health and to use this knowledge, together with citizen engagement, to design and pilot a multilevel, behaviorally-based intervention for young people in Barcelona.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Research continues to demonstrate that people of all ages and abilities enjoy higher levels of health and wellbeing when they have nature nearby in parks, gardens, naturalized schoolyards as well as landscaping at home and work. Access to and engagement with nature is associated with greater longevity, more physical activity, restoration from stress, and a greater sense of wellbeing. However, urbanization and changing lifestyles are compromising our interactions with natural environments and such changes have dramatic implications for mental health and overall wellbeing. Finding our way back to health, through the structures where we live, work, play and learn, requires empirical research that establishes the intermediate processes that link the structures that exist in a person’s environment and the health promoting behaviors that lead to positive health outcomes. This project examines the neighborhood qualities that shape people’s perceptions of place and, in turn, motivate them to engage with structural aspects of their neighborhoods that promote health and well-being. We will use a spatial analytic approach and data from the Positive Effects on the Natural Outdoor Environment in Typical Populations of Difference Regions in Europe (PHENOTYPE) study (n=3947 participants), objective environmental data (n=290 street audits), and in-depth interview data (n=83 interviews) to assess spatial patterns in resident ratings of neighborhood quality and environment and the resident and neighborhood factors that influence these ratings. Additionally, we will use participatory planning techniques to partner with community to design and pilot an intervention that taps into the processes critical for improving health. This research is important because it will provide empirical evidence that community planners, park developers, neighborhood organizations and health practitioners need to support the creation and maintenance of healthy places and healthy people.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- FUNDACION PRIVADA INSTITUTO DE SALUD GLOBAL BARCELONA · BarcelonaCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union