Access to green spaces helped guard against depression during pandemic - UPI.com

Local parks and neighborhood greenery protected people's mental health from the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study says.

Overall, depression increased nearly two-fold during the pandemic, with both men and women more frequently diagnosed, researchers said.

But middle-aged adults and seniors had a reduced risk of depression if they lived in greener neighborhoods, Canadian researchers reported Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.

What's more, the greener a person's neighborhood, the lower their risk for depression, researchers found.

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