Effects of natural environment on mental health: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Abstract

Objectives: To synthesize the evidence on the effects of exposure to natural environment on mental health to inform future policymaking, practice, and research. Methods: A systematic search of nine major databases and additional sources were conducted using relevant keywords for the natural environment and mental health till November 2019. We included systematic reviews or meta-analyses reporting any measures of associations between the natural environment and mental health. The data on study characteristics and research findings were extracted using the JBI data extraction tool and synthesized narratively.Results: Twenty reviews were included in this umbrella review reporting both correlational and experimental studies. Among diverse population groups, the exposure to the natural environment was associated with improvements in depressive symptoms, anxiety, mood disorders, stress, cognitive and emotional functions, affect, happiness, and overall mental wellbeing. Conclusions: The findings of this review inform beneficial mental health outcomes associated with exposure to the natural environment. This umbrella review suggests collaborative policymaking, advanced research, and evidence-based practice protecting the natural environment and improving mental health across populations.

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

“…These results also support Hypothesis 2 in this study, saying that video from the forest areas reduces short-term procrastination more, than the video from an urban area. Previous studies have shown that psychological well-being can be increased through the impact of the forest environment [43,65,75], including in a virtual form [59]. Current research has shown that fluid procrastination can also be changed by representing the natural environment in the form of a video film.…”

Mental health outcomes of quarantine and isolation for infection prevention: A systematic umbrella review of the global evidence

“…Since 2015, many umbrella reviews have been conducted to evaluate the evidence base on the psychosocial epidemiology of mental health in diverse populations [22][23][24][25][26][27]. Although several reviews have reported psychological impacts of quarantine or isolation [28,29], no umbrella review or overview of the reviews was found, although such a review could provide valuable information on the mental health implications of quarantine and isolation within the global landscape.…”

Mental health outcomes of quarantine and isolation for infection prevention: A systematic umbrella review of the global evidence

“…Since 2015, many umbrella reviews have been conducted evaluating the evidence base on the psychosocial epidemiology of mental health in diverse populations [19][20][21][22][23][24]. However, no umbrella review or review of the reviews was found, which can inform the mental health implications of quarantine and isolation for infection prevention at the global landscape.…”