Seite - 108 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

108 5.3.3 Overweight Three of the reviewed  studies have researched the link between green space avail- ability and overweight or obesity in urban areas. Pearson et  al. (2014) showed that deprivation and decreased access to green space in the neighbourhood were both significantly linked with higher odds of being overweight or obese. However, for a sample of older women, Michael et  al. (2014) could not identify any association with overweight or body mass index (BMI) and changes in the urban environment through, for example, green-space improvements. They did, however, as shown above, again identify a link between being overweight and socio-economic status. A higher socio-economic status of the neighbourhood was associated with a healthier BMI value. Jenkin et  al. (2015) found unexpected results, in that more green space in the neighbourhood was associated with lower sugar consumption values. As shown, they also found neighbourhood deprivation to be significantly linked to obesity- related behaviours such as fast-food consumption. The link between lower socio-economic status and risk of being overweight was identified in the presented studies, whereas the association with urban green space was only identified in one study. 5.3.4 Physical Activity, Cardiovascular Disease and  Mortality Recent research suggests that urban green space is associated with participation in physical activity and has, through this, a positive effect on health (see also Dadvand et  al. Chap. 6 and Cook et  al. Chap. 11, both this volume). McMorris et  al. (2015) showed that residents living in areas with the highest share of green space were significantly more likely to be physically active during leisure-time. This relation- ship appeared in all income groups. Likewise, Pearson et  al. (2014) showed that increased access to urban green space was directly associated with higher levels of walking. Low levels of walking were significantly positively associated with neigh- bourhood deprivation. By contrast, Richardson et  al. (2017a) found no significant relationship between physical activity and neighbourhood green space in low- income African-American adults in a US city. Paquet et  al. (2013) showed that larger, greener and more locally available green spaces in particular were associated with better cardiometabolic health, which is particularly mediated through physical activity. Xu et  al. (2017) showed that greater greenness was significantly associated with lower cardiovascular and diabetes mor- tality, and non-significantly associated with lower chronic respiratory mortality. Relationships were identified to be stronger for residents living in low-income areas. Although one study could not find any significant association between physical activity and green space, all other review studies showed that urban residents are more physically active in greener neighbourhoods, although one study highlighted a lower degree of activity in deprived areas. N. Kabisch