Our results are in accordance with other studies in which no statistically significant association was
observed between access to parks and the prevalence of obesity or overweight [39,40], or stress [34],
which are the primary risk factors of hypertension. Unfortunately, we did not have any information on
the subjects’ physical activity and that might have an impact on our results. Adjustment for stress did
not change our risk estimates materially, suggesting that other mechanisms may be responsible for the
observed effects.
To our knowledge, only few published studies investigated the association between green
environment and blood pressure using objective environmental characteristics [12]. The authors used
satellite remote sensing data to characterise the land cover/land use environment for the studied areas.
The authors found that in urban areas, the incidence of systolic and diastolic hypertension was higher
than in it was suburban or rural areas. However, adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors attenuated
this association.