Beyond greenspace: an ecological study of population general health and indicators of natural environment type and quality

Table 1 Descriptive statistics for environmental indicators, general health and area characteristics, for English Lower-layer Super Output Areas included in analyses (2011, n = 31,672)

Variable	Mean	SD ^e	IQR ^e	Min	Max
Landcover types (% LSOA area coverage) ^a
Broadleaf woodland	4.37	-	5.81	0.00	88.94
Coniferous woodland	0.56	-	0.00	0.00	63.97
Arable/horticultural	13.59	-	19.93	0.00	95.53
Improved grassland	15.98	-	22.28	0.00	85.79
Semi-natural grassland	2.41	-	3.02	0.00	69.02
Mountain, heath & bog	0.67	-	0.00	0.00	72.65
Saltwater	0.03	-	0.00	0.00	38.49
Freshwater	0.49	-	0.00	0.00	77.65
Coastal	0.31	-	0.00	0.00	91.59
Urban/suburban	61.59	-	61.68	0.11	100.00
Environmental quality indicators
Landcover Shannon Diversity Index (2007)^b	0.93	0.44	0.65	0.00	2.37
Bird species richness 2008 (number of species)	87.77	10.79	14	36	141
Freshwater ecological quality indicator (2011)^c	-0.10	0.39	0.43	-1.97	0.99
Protected/designated areas kernel density indicator (10 km search radius)^d	81.40	-	63.42	0.00	1220.50
Protected/designated areas kernel density indicator (20 km search radius)^d	97.50	-	78.09	1.00	1007.71
General health (census 2011)
Prevalence good/very good health (Directly age/sex standardised %)	80.84	5.72	8.29	59.42	94.61
Prevalence bad/very bad health (Directly age/sex standardised %)	5.79	2.81	3.80	0.74	18.75
Area characteristics
LSOA area (km2)	4.04	-	1.03	0.02	683.78
Urban	n = 26,186
Town/fringe	n = 2,986
Rural	n = 2,500

^aIn each case, descriptive data are presented for each land cover type across all 31,672 LSOAs e.g. mean broadleaf woodland coverage per LSOA is 4.37% by area.
^b.A score of 0 on the Shannon Diversity Index indicates that an LSOA is 100% covered by a single land cover type; as the number of different land covers and their relative abundance increases within the LSOA, so does the Index (e.g. an LSOA 60% urban and 40% broadleaf has a higher index than one 90% urban, 10% broadleaf).
^cThe freshwater quality indicator is interpolated from sample sites where overall ecological quality is scored from -2 (Bad) to 2 (High).
^dThe protected/designated area density indicators are relative measures with no meaningful unit; derivation is described in the text.
^eSD = Standard Deviation; IQR = Inter-Quartile Range. Where distribution is substantially asymmetric the SD is not stated.

ISSN: 1476-072X