The review searched Medline, Embase and Scopus to May 2026 for cohort studies examining whether residential greenspace modifies or mediates the respiratory effects of air pollution; 14 studies qualified, all rated 'good' quality and drawn mostly from European cohorts. Outcomes covered respiratory mortality, lung function and non-infectious respiratory disease, and greenspace was generally associated with reduced pollution-related respiratory mortality. The association was detected more consistently through mediation than through moderation, which the authors read as indicating an air-quality pathway rather than a direct effect of greenspace on susceptibility.
Why it is interesting: It separates two competing mechanisms behind the greenspace-mortality association, which matters for how attribution of air-pollution deaths is modelled.