C&NN 2019 International Conference

There is increasing evidence for an interest in the benefits of nature contact for human health and well-being. For children, outdoor play, particularly in natural environments, has been associated with benefits for physical health, developmental progress, and psychological well-being. Given these findings, promoting nature contact and ensuring access to green spaces across the socioeconomic spectrum could play a role in improving health behaviors and outcomes, as well as reducing health inequities. Many health care providers are unaware of the growing body of methodologically-sound studies linking nature contact to health. In an effort to fill this gap, our multidisciplinary group is conducting a systematic review of studies to aggregate and evaluate the evidence regarding the impacts of nature contact on children’s health and well-being. Ultimately, this effort aims to support ease of access for health care providers to the strongest evidence-based medicine in this field. In this session, we propose to address:
1) the need for a systematic review (pitfalls of expert opinion and common wisdom)
2) our methodology (search strategy, numbers of papers reviewed, data extraction and risk of bias assessment)
3) our preliminary results (highlighting where the evidence base is strong and where additional research would be helpful).