Effects of managed forest versus unmanaged forest on physiological restoration from a stress stimulus, and the relationship with individual traits

Saito, Haruo; Horiuchi, Masahiro; Takayama, Nobuki; Fujiwara, Akio

doi:10.1080/13416979.2019.1586300

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The respondents at each research point can therefore not be compared directly, meaning that the differences among individuals in the two respondent groups could have caused the significant differences observed between the urban and forest environments. In future studies, this occurrence could be eliminated by exposing respondents from the two groups to both environments in reverse order [45].…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Recreation in a Snow-Covered Forest Environment on the Psychological Wellbeing of Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Study

Bielinis

Łukowski

Omelan

et al. 2019

Forests

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Forest recreation can be successfully conducted for the purpose of psychological relaxation, as has been proven in previous scientific studies. During the winter in many countries, when snow cover occurs frequently, forest recreation (walking, relaxation, photography, etc.) is common. Nevertheless, whether forest therapy conducted in a forest environment with a snow cover will also have a positive effect on psychological indicators remains unknown. Furthermore, male subjects frequently participate in forest therapy experiments, whereas females are rarely involved. Thus, in this study, the effectuality of forest recreation during winter and with snow cover was tested on 32 young females. For these reasons, the experiment involved 15 min periods of relaxation in a forest environment or in an urban street environment, in addition to a pre-test under indoor conditions (randomized controlled study). Four psychological questionnaires Profile of Mood States (POMS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Restorative Outcome Scale (ROS), Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS)) were administered to participants before and after interventions. Results showed that participants’ levels of negative mood, as measured by different aspects of the POMS questionnaire (tension/anxiety, anger/hostility, depression/dejection, confusion, and fatigue), decreased after exposure to the forest environment. In contrast, both tension/anxiety and anger/hostility increased in the urban street environment. The indicator of negative affect from the PANAS questionnaire also increased after exposure to the urban street environment, whereas the indicator of positive affect based on PANAS was higher in the forest environment than in the urban street environment. Restorativeness and subjective vitality exhibited higher values after exposure to the forest environment in comparison to those from the control and pre-test. The changes in these indicators demonstrate that forest recreation in the snow during winter can significantly increase psychological relaxation in females, as well as show that recreation can be successfully conducted under these winter conditions.

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Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Recreation in a Snow-Covered Forest Environment on the Psychological Wellbeing of Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Study

Bielinis

Łukowski

Omelan

et al. 2019

Forests

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show abstract

“…In the model of combining these theories proposed by the author, insufficient attention resources will often be an antecedent of stress and both theories involve the possibility of restoring a person from a state of fatigue or stress to an optimal state. In summary, nature, including the forest environment, has the potential to regenerate mental strength and help returning to the optimal state after experiencing stress [48].…”

Section: Nature and Human Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Viewing Video Representation of the Urban Environment and Forest Environment on Mood and Level of Procrastination

Bielinis

Simkin

Puttonen

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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A common problem among students is the problem of delaying important work activities, which is conceptualized as procrastination. Since procrastination can cause considerable costs for society, we would like to find a method to effectively alleviate the symptoms of this conditioning. It has been proven in an earlier study that staying in the forest environment increases vitality and reduces anxiety, and the negative state of these features can be associated with the intensification of procrastination symptoms. Therefore, it is likely that watching a forest video may decrease the probability or intensity of procrastination. To measure the impact of the forest environment on the level of procrastination of the subjects, a randomized experiment was carried out, in which the subjects watched in random order (on different days) one of two 15-min videos: one showing a walk in the forest area and one showing a walk in an urban environment (control). We measured the level of so-called ‘fluid procrastination’ including three aspects: ‘lack of energy to do the work’, ‘inability to get to work’ and ’pessimistic attitude to do the work’ with a set of questions the respondents completed before and after the experiment. The results showed that one aspect of fluid procrastination (‘pessimistic attitude to do the work’) can be effectively lowered by watching a video showing the forest environment. In contrast, watching a video of an urban environment increased the procrastination levels for two other aspects of procrastination (‘lack of energy to do the work’, ‘inability to get to work’). We also measured three other parameters before and after the experiment: mood state, restoration and vitality. Watching the video from forest area raised mood and restoration and watching the video from urban area, decreased mood, vitality and restoration. The study suggests that watching a video showing forest landscapes could be used as an effective remedy for problems related to procrastination among students.

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“…Some studies have begun to address the relevance of forest characteristics to human health. Saito et al (2019) assessed the differences in various health variables between exposure to an unmanaged forest and a managed forest [26]. Blood pressure and saliva cortisol levels decreased significantly for both forests after a stress stimulus but records were significantly lower in the managed than the unmanaged forest [26].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Saito et al (2019) assessed the differences in various health variables between exposure to an unmanaged forest and a managed forest [26]. Blood pressure and saliva cortisol levels decreased significantly for both forests after a stress stimulus but records were significantly lower in the managed than the unmanaged forest [26]. Another study reported that health responses differed between an unmanaged and a managed forest, with significantly more favorable acute insulin reactions and levels of oxidative stress in the unmanaged forest, underlying more profound beneficial effects in the unmanaged than the managed forest [25].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Should Forests Be Characterized in Regard to Human Health? Evidence from Existing Literature

Bach

Peñuelas

Clarà

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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The potential of forests as a source of health has been addressed by the scientific community and is now being considered in national forest strategies, management plans and policies. Studies identifying the mechanisms by which forest characteristics may induce these effects on human health are nevertheless scarce. This systematic review of literature on forests and human health with real-life human exposure was conducted to assess the extent to which forests have been studied and described in detail and the extent to which relationships between forest variables and health effects have been reported. The analysis underlines the lack of forest descriptions in 19.35% of the 62 studies selected for review as well as the high heterogeneity of forest variables’ description. Patterns among the articles could not be identified correlating the broader forest variable (forest type) and the most studied health variables identified (blood pressure, pulse rate or/and cortisol levels). These findings, together with previous ex situ researches, suggest the need to ameliorate and incorporate more accurate descriptions of forest variables within human health studies to provide data for forest management and the potential use of these habitats for preventive medicine and clinical practice guidelines.

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Effects of managed forest versus unmanaged forest on physiological restoration from a stress stimulus, and the relationship with individual traits

Cited by 25 publications

References 38 publications

The Effect of Recreation in a Snow-Covered Forest Environment on the Psychological Wellbeing of Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Study

The Effect of Recreation in a Snow-Covered Forest Environment on the Psychological Wellbeing of Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Study

Effect of Viewing Video Representation of the Urban Environment and Forest Environment on Mood and Level of Procrastination

How Should Forests Be Characterized in Regard to Human Health? Evidence from Existing Literature

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