Relationship between Green Space and Mortality in the Cities of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Abstract

Intense work pressure and unhealthy lifestyles significantly threaten urban public health. Urban designs have quickly developed, such as the introduction of green space (GS), which has been suggested to improve public health. Prior epidemiological studies have investigated GS and mortality and have generally found potential benefits. However, these studies were primarily conducted in developed Western countries and the potential effects of GS on mortality in developing Asian countries are poorly understood. In this study, our goal was to investigate the effect of GS landscape attributes and socioeconomic conditions on all-cause mortality in 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. Nine GS variables and seven socioeconomic variables were collected. An optimal general linear model with the selected variables was established using LASSO regression to explore the direction and relative importance of GSs and socioeconomic conditions for urban public health. The results showed that (1) socioeconomic conditions and GS jointly affect all-cause mortality, (2) people with greater personal wealth suffered less health risk, and (3) regularly shaped and highly connected GSs decreased the risk to public health. These findings suggest that reasonable GS policies and planning strategies are effective approaches for improving public health in Chinese cities.