Association of greenspace exposure with telomere length in preschool children

Mohammad Miri, Paula de Prado-Bert, Ahmad Alahabadi, Moslem Lari Najafi, Abolfazl Rad, Alireza Moslem, Hamideh Ebrahimi Aval, Mohammad Hassan Ehrampoush, Mariona Bustamante, Mohammad Javad Zare Sakhvidi, Tim Nawrot, Jordi Sunyer, Payam Dadvand*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Exposure to greenspace has been associated with a wide range of health benefits; however, the available evidence on the association of this exposure with telomere length (TL), an early marker of ageing, is still scarce. We investigated the association of greenspace exposure with TL in a sample of 200 preschool children (aged 5–7 years) residing in Sabzevar, Iran (2017). We comprehensively characterized different aspects of greenspace exposure encompassing residential, kindergarten, and total (including both residential and kindergarten) surrounding greenspace (using satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), residential and kindergarten distance to green spaces, time spent in private gardens and public green spaces, and the number of plant pots at home. Relative leukocyte TL (LTL) in blood samples of the study participants was measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). We applied mixed effects linear regression models with kindergarten and qPCR plate as random effects, to estimate the association of indicators of greenspace exposure (one at a time) with LTL, controlled for relevant covariates. We observed an inverse association between distance from home and kindergarten to green spaces larger than 5000 m2 and LTL. Moreover, higher total surrounding greenspace at 300m and 500m buffers and higher surrounding greenspace at 300m buffer around kindergarten and home were associated with longer LTL. Furthermore, longer time spent (h/week) in the public green spaces was associated with longer LTL. Our findings for residential and kindergarten distance to any green space (regardless of the size), residential surrounding greenspace at 100m and 500m buffers, kindergarten surrounding greenspace at 100m buffer, time spent in private gardens (h/week) and the number of plant pots at home were not conclusive. Our findings were generally suggestive for a positive association between greenspace exposure and LTL in preschool children. More studies are needed to confirm these findings in other settings with different climates and populations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115228
Number of pages35
JournalEnvironmental Pollution
Volume266
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2020

Keywords

  • Ageing
  • Development
  • LMICs
  • Natural environments
  • Pediatric
  • Urbanization

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