They found that men living in the greenest neighbourhoods were about 10% less likely to die from lung problems than those in the least green neighbourhoods, but there was no difference for women.

"The result was a real surprise, because up to now the assumption has been that green spaces are good for everyone" says Professor Richard Mitchell (right) of the University of Glasgow's Public Health and Health Policy department, who led the study. "Our study shows that it is important to guard against such assumptions."

"The study was about measuring any health benefits of green space, so we can't say for certain why we found the difference between men and women," comments Dr Elizabeth Richardson (left) of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who co-authored the research.

"We know from other studies that women tend to use green spaces less than men and are less likely to use them for exercise, particularly if the green space doesn't feel safe. That might be an explanation. Further work is needed to investigate this."

"Golf courses were one of the types of green space that were included in our definition, although these were less common than other types such as parks and playing fields. It is not possible to use our results to infer which types of green space, if any, are particularly beneficial.

"Another thing that should be borne in mind when interpreting the findings is that the study concentrated on the relationship between people's health and the green space outside their front door," notes Dr Richardson.

"If there was a golf course in a neighbourhood, then yes, our data would show that the neighbourhood has a lot of green space. However, most people who play golf don't live in the immediate vicinity of a golf course... so gender differences in golf-playing are unlikely to explain our findings."

Professor Mitchell added: "Reducing the risk of death is quite a lot to ask of our parks and woodlands. The fact we did see lower risks of death for some people is impressive. In this time of financial cutbacks, policy makers should look to protect our parks and woodlands."

The study looked at statistics for 29m working age adults, and is the first to explore the link between green space and health across all urban areas in the UK, as well as the first to look at differences in the health benefits between men and women.

The findings were published in the journal of Social Science and Medicine, and funded by the Forestry Commission.
Below: Edinburgh's Holyrood Park