Garrido-Cumbrera, Marco, Foley, Ronan, Correa-Fernández, José, González-Marín, Alicia, Braçe, Olta and Hewlett, Denise (2022) The importance for wellbeing of having views of nature from and in the home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from the GreenCOVID study. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 83. p. 101864. ISSN 0272-4944
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Abstract
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the daily lives of people and may affect their well-being.
The aim of the present study is to assess well-being and associated factors during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population in three European countries.
Methods: Green COVID was an observational cross-sectional study using an online survey (7 April 2020 to 24 July
2020) promoted by the Health & Territory Research (HTR) of the University of Seville in Spain, Maynooth
University in Ireland, and the University of Winchester in England, which included a sample of 3109 unselected
adults. Well-being was measured using the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5) scale.
Seven aspects, related to the natural environment of the home, were evaluated (role of outdoor views in coping
with lockdown, importance of blue spaces during lockdown, importance of green spaces during lockdown,
quality of view from home, use of outdoor spaces or window views, elements of nature in the home, and views of
green or blue spaces from home). Binary logistic regression was conducted to identify the parameters associated
with poor well-being.
Results: Mean age was 39.7 years and 79.3% lived in Spain, the majority in urban areas (92.8%). 73.0% were
female and 72.0% had undertaken university studies. Poor well-being was reported by 59.0%, while 26.6%
indicated the possible presence of clinical depression. The factors most associated with poor well-being were
students (OR = 1.541), those who had no engagement in physical activity (OR = 1.389), those who reported
‘living in Spain’ compared to Ireland (OR = 0.724), being female (OR = 1.256), poor quality views from home
(OR = 0.887), less benefit from views of the natural environment to cope with lockdown (OR = 0.964), and those
younger in age (OR = 0.990).
Conclusions: More than half of participants reported poor well-being and one in four indicated the possible
presence of clinical depression during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We identified that belonging to a
younger age cohort, being a student, being female, not being able to continue with daily pursuits such as physical
activity, and having poorer quality of views from home led to poor well-being among participants. Our study
highlights the importance of continued physical activity and views of nature to improve the well-being of individuals during times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Item Type: | Article |
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Keywords: | Well-being; COVID-19 pandemic; Lockdown; Outdoors contact; Physical activity; Views; |
Academic Unit: | Assisting Living & Learning,ALL institute Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography |
Item ID: | 19000 |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101864 |
Depositing User: | Dr. Ronan Foley |
Date Deposited: | 10 Oct 2024 08:21 |
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Environmental Psychology |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/19000 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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