Abstract Body

The amount of greenery in the residential environment has been shown to be beneficially associated with the health and well-being of urbanites. Moreover, this association tends to be stronger for disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Improving access to greenery in such neighbourhoods could therefore help to reduce socioeconomic health disparities. However, it is still largely unknown which type of greenery is most beneficial. This study looks at the effect of having a private garden adjacent to the dwelling, and that of the amount of greenery in this garden. It is hypothesized that urbanites with a green garden are healthier than those without such a garden, also after correcting for their socioeconomic status and the amount of greenery outside their garden. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that if one has a green garden, the amount of residential greenery outside this garden is less strongly associated with one’s health, due to a partial overlap in health-related functions. A database has already been developed that contains detailed data for over a million Dutch home addresses on the presence and size of private gardens, as well as on the amount of greenery that each garden contains. These data will be linked to registry data on health, as provided by family doctors, enabling testing of the hypotheses. During the presentation, first results will be presented. It is already known that multi-family houses (apartments), usually without an adjacent private garden, are much more common in poor neighbourhoods than in wealthy neighbourhoods, and that the private gardens in such neighbourhoods are much smaller on average. Moreover, this more frequent absence or smaller size of private gardens in poor neighbourhoods is not compensated by a higher amount of residential greenery outside the own garden, and the amount of greenery per capita is substantially lower. The outcomes of the study may have far-reaching implications for how to best address the substantial housing assignment facing the Netherlands.