Discover the health care savings from regular park visits
By simply visiting national parks more regularly you could save money on healthcare costs – find out more!
Did you know that regular visitors to Adelaide’s national benefits from a healthier lifestyle which can potentially save the state’s economy $140 million a year in avoided healthcare costs.
Those are the key findings of a new study into the recreational and wellbeing benefits of SA’s metropolitan national parks.
What did the study involve?
The study was undertaken by researchers at the University of Adelaide who found a notable difference in health between those individuals who visit parks and those who don’t.
It focused on 20 popular parks and reserves including Anstey Hill, Cleland, Deep Creek, Morialta, and Onkaparinga.
The researchers assessed things like visitor use patterns, self-reported health scores and travel estimates to determine the health and wellbeing-related economic benefits of park visitation across the metro area.
What were the key findings?
- On average, regular park visitors are 4% healthier that those that do not visit parks.
- The better health of regular visitors to metro parks equates to $140 million a year in potential avoided health expenditure on chronic diseases in South Australia.
- Most residents can access an Adelaide metropolitan park within 30 minutes of their home (approximately 13 km).
- People of lower socio-economic areas visit parks less frequently because they have further to travel. Creating parks closer to lower socio-economic groups would potentially lead to improved health outcomes for these groups.
How do parks help improve your health?
What this study does is reinforce the crucial role our parks and reserves play in health and wellbeing.
We know there’s a strong connection between people’s health and nature.
This is evidence shows that spending time in nature is good for us it improves our physical and mental health as well as providing opportunities to connect with friends and family.
By visiting a national park you’re also helping to ease the burden on the health system and improve the state’s economy!
If you are interested in learning more you can read the full report on the Parks SA website.