Aims: We aimed to investigate the association between residential greenness and MetS in older Chinese adults.
Methods: Longitudinal data on sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle were collected from the Shenzhen Healthy Ageing Research (SHARE) cohort. Greenness exposure was assessed through satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values in the 250-m, 500-m, and 1250-m radius around the residential address for each participant. MetS was defined by standard guidelines for the Chinese population.
Results: A total of 49,893 older Chinese adults with a mean age of 70.96 (SD = 5.26) years were included in the study. In the fully adjusted models, participants who lived in the highest quartile of NDVI250-m, NDVI500-m, and NDVI1250-m had a 15% (odds ratio, OR = 0.85, 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.80-0.90), 12% (OR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.83-0.93), and 11% (OR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.85-0.95) lower incidence of MetS, respectively, than those living in the lowest quartile (all p-trend < 0.01). Interactions and subgroup analyses showed that age, sex, smoking status, and drinking status were significant effect modifiers (p-interaction for all NDVI < 0.05).
Conclusions: Residential greenness is associated with a lower risk of MetS in Chinese older adults, especially for young older adults, females, non-smokers, and non-drinkers.
Keywords: Cohort study; Epidemiology; Healthy longevity; Metabolic syndrome; Residential greenness.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Italian Society of Endocrinology (SIE).