Let nature be thy medicine: a socio-ecological exploration of green prescriptions in the UK

Chronic, non-infectious diseases are on the rise and social isolation is emerging as a major risk factor for mortality. Spending time in natural environments, immersed in the sights, sounds, and smells can bring important health and wellbeing benefits to humans. Furthermore, we are thought to interact with an array of invisible health-regulating biogenic compounds in these natural environments. Indeed, a plethora of studies now support the nature-health nexus and several mechanistic pathways have been proposed. A green prescription is an emerging method of prescribing time spent interacting with nature, e.g., a nature walk, conservation volunteering, or therapeutic horticulture. Green prescriptions are typically provided by general practitioners and social care professionals in conjunction with environment-centric groups. Green prescribing is designed to be a holistic intervention with the potential to help prevent (proactive) and alleviate (reactive) noncommunicable diseases and social isolation. However, little is known about the perceptions and awareness of, and opportunities and constraints (e.g., social, spatial, ecological) associated with green prescribing in the UK. To explore these factors from the perspective of both green prescribing providers and prescribers, we formulated and distributed online questionnaires and collected data from across the UK. A total of N = 261 respondents were included in the analysis. The respondents consisted of general practitioners (n = 118) and nature-based organisations (n = 143). We also collected baseline data to provide an estimation of the spatial distribution of green prescribing activity in the UK. Using geographic information systems (GIS) we will conduct further analyses to explore the socio-spatial and ecological relationships associated with green prescribing, for example, using the Index of Multiple Deprivation and various landscape metrics. At the time of writing this abstract, the analysis for this study is only partially complete. Therefore, we discussed the preliminary findings of this study during the inVIVO Planetary Health 2020 annual meeting.