Green-space mental-health research leaves some populations underrepresented
A review examined who gets studied and how mental health is measured, highlighting uneven representation across methods and participant groups.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The most common research pattern combined one-time study designs, self-reported mental health and adults living in the community. Clinical populations and groups disadvantaged by age appeared much less often in experimental research. These findings concern the coverage of the evidence; they do not measure how much green space benefits any particular group.
The abstract does not fully explain the denominator for its combination percentages or provide group-specific health-effect estimates. This limits an abstract-based assessment of how large the representation gaps are.
What the review counted
Researchers used an equity framework to examine combinations of study design, mental-health measurement and population sampling. The question was whether research attention was distributed fairly across people and methods, including groups that may be harder to study.
Coverage is different from effectiveness
Studies involving university students were more common within the specified experimental self-report pattern than experimental studies involving clinical or age-disadvantaged groups. That imbalance identifies gaps in representation, without establishing how treatment or health effects differ between populations.
The original publication
Investigation of Epistemic Equity in Urban Green Space and Mental Health Research: A Systematic Review.
Huang Q, Liu K, Li F et al.
Int J Environ Res Public Health · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41752300
- Record checked
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