Science proves how spending time in nature is beneficial to one's health. A number of medical conditions such as cancer, osteoporosis, addiction, depression and sleep disorders were eased through appreciating the environment. A new study found that nature is not the only contributor that improves one's health but residing in a scenic place is also good for a person's well-being.
A scenic area is any place that is captivating or beautiful, but is not only limited to green surroundings. It can be Alabama's Gulf Coast, the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska or the Nemours Mansion and Gardens found in Delaware. Any scenery that is eye-catching and refreshes your sight is considered scenic and according to experts build up a healthier body.
A study was conducted to determine the connection between scenic place and a person's health. Researchers use the website 'Scenic-Or-Not' to gather opinions from people in the social world regarding the stunning places around Britain. About 212,000 photos were shown and people were asked to rate them according to their beauty.
Researchers identified the average rating and came up with a list of the top fascinating places. Then, the 2011 health census was reviewed to see the relevance between the two information. The researchers found that those with greater access to scenic areas or residing close by them are healthier compared to those who are living far from these places.
The result of the study may be attributed to several factors such as whether an area is urban, suburban, or rural. Socio-economic characteristics like income and employment, which may affect a person's health condition, were also considered as well as the levels of air pollution.
Chanuki Seresinhe, PhD student in the Data Science Lab at Warwick Business School related how their research was done. "To explore how scenicness relates to people's health, we had to account for a wide range of factors. Richer people may live in more scenic areas, cities may be less scenic due to the lack of nature and higher population density, and scenic areas may be less polluted. After building all these factors into our analysis, we find that across all of England, people report better health when living in areas of greater scenicness."
Seresinhe concluded, "Our results suggest that the beauty of our everyday environment might have more practical importance than was previously believed."
