Ever wondered how it is that Tarzan looks so young? Apparently there is a scientific reason behind the fresh look
As part of a long-term and unprecedented study of its kind and scope, researchers from Tel Aviv University examined in depth the relationship between a green environment, i.e. an environment saturated with vegetation, and the mortality rate of heart patients who underwent bypass surgery. After cross-checking information received from thousands of patients living throughout the State of Israel, over many years, it was discovered that the survival rate of bypass surgery heart patients who live in green areas is significantly higher than those who live in urban areas without greenery in their eyes.
A unique study involving 3,128 heart patients
The unique research was conducted by the doctoral student Maya Sade, under the guidance of Prof. Racheli Dankner ofDepartment of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine בSchool of Public Health בFaculty of Medical and Health Sciences, and Prof. Alexandra Chodnovsky MPorter School of Environment and Earth Sciences. Also participating in the study were Nir Pullman, Nirit Agai and Arnona Ziv from the Gartner Institute for Epidemiology Research at the Sheba Medical Center, Ilan Levy from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and Prof. Michael Brauer from the University of British Columbia in Canada. The research was carried out with the support of the Health and Environment Foundation and the Israel Science Foundation, and was published in the prestigious journal Epidemiology.
According to Prof. Dankner: "The current study was based on a database we built at the Gartner Institute about 20 years ago for another study: 3,128 heart patients who underwent bypass surgery in seven medical centers in Israel, from Haifa to Beer Sheva, between the years 2007-2004. Using data from the Ministry of the Interior, we found that 1,442 (46%) of them died of various causes by the year 2021. Now we wanted to examine to what extent (if at all) the life expectancy of heart patients after surgery is related to the amount of green vegetation around their residences."
Living in a green environment significantly increases the survival chances of patients
For the purpose of the study, the researchers cross-referenced the residential address data of the heart patients with data from NASA's Landsat satellites, which photograph the Earth and are able to locate the color green with a very high resolution and within a range of up to 30x30 meters from the residential address - which allows identification of vegetation even within urban areas.
The researchers measured the presence of the green color in a radius of up to 300 meters around the address of each of the patients, and cross-referenced this data with the dates of death or survival of the patients, over 14 years from the date of the bypass surgery. Later, the researchers performed a detailed statistical analysis of the data, adjusting for a wide range of variables: age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, the reason for hospitalization (elective, semi-elective, or emergency surgery), living in the periphery/center, air pollution, and living distance from the Mediterranean Sea. The data shows that about 90% of the research participants lived in urban areas, 80% in the coastal plain from the center to Haifa, 15% in the Jerusalem area, and 5% in the Beer Sheva area.
"The research findings are particularly relevant in the current period in Israel: they imply that exposure to a green environment may be a helpful factor in recovering from trauma"
Doctoral student Maya Sade says: "We divided the residential addresses of the patients into three groups, according to the amount of vegetation in their surroundings, and found a clear statistical connection between a green environment and the survival of the patients - that is, how many years they lived after surgery. The results revealed that during the 12 years after the surgery, the mortality risk of those who lived in a very green environment was on average 7% lower compared to those who lived in a green environment. We also found that the beneficial relationship is more pronounced among women, who made up 23% of the sample, and were older at the time of surgery (69.5 years old on average) compared to men (63.8 years old)."
The researchers conclude: "In this study, we examined the survival of coronary heart patients after bypass surgery, and found that living in a green environment is associated with better survival. We hypothesize that there are a variety of reasons for this: in a green environment, people breathe cleaner air and engage in more physical activity, the atmosphere is calm, and the quality of life is better. It is possible that the research findings are particularly relevant in the current period in Israel: they imply that exposure to a green environment may be a helpful factor in recovering from trauma."
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