Urban Green Space Access and Children’s Health

Access to green space is an important environmental factor for mental and physical health
benefits. Benefits to children may include enhanced mood, self-esteem, greater self-discipline, and lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Despite these clinical benefits, knowledge of green space accessibility for children in a health care setting is not readily available at the point of care for health care professionals. Therefore a gap in knowledge exists among health care professionals and health care systems to best care for children by not having access to information regarding important environmental exposures for individual children. The purpose of this project is to provide a pediatric health system, the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, spatial insights on the accessibility of pediatric patients to green space in the greater Los Angeles area. This StoryMap will be created using pediatric electronic health records and green space accessibility data. Spatial insights into green space accessibility will enable health care professionals to better care for their patients, potentially contribute to risk-stratification models for well-being, and better inform policy advocacy efforts at the local, state and federal level.