Feeling Connected after Experiencing Digital Nature: A Survey Study

Houwelingen-Snippe, Josca van; Rompay, Thomas Johannes Lucas van; Allouch, Somaya Ben

doi:10.3390/ijerph17186879

Cited by 31 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(94 reference statements)

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“…In contrast, evidence from Scotland did not detect associations between spending time in nature and changes in health from prelockdown levels (Corley et al, 2021). Likewise, the number of nature interactions was also not associated with loneliness, while living far from nature was in the Netherlands (van Houwelingen-Snippe et al, 2020), suggesting that passive exposure to nature may be important.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Contact With Nature as a Mental Health Buffer for Lower Income Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pearson

Horton

Pfeiffer

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Cities

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Despite a growing number of research outputs on the importance of nature contact during the COVID-19 pandemic, we know of no longitudinal research conducted prior to and during the pandemic among low-income and minority ethnicity populations, i.e., those that might be most affected. Furthermore, we have scant information about how and to what degree contact with nature might protect mental health or mitigate worsening of mental health during the pandemic. We filled these gaps using a subset of a longitudinal study of n = 86 individuals in low-income, predominantly African American, neighborhoods in Detroit, MI, USA. The study addressed the following research questions: (1) did self-reported use and perceived value of nature change during, vs. prior to, the pandemic; (2) did perceived access to outdoor spaces buffer people against mental health issues such as stress, anxiety and depression symptoms; or (3) did objectively measured quality of nature views from home buffer people against mental health issues, taking into account relevant covariates and pandemic experiences (e.g., loss of employment, death of a friend/relative)? While attitudes to nature improved slightly from pre- to during the pandemic, we also observed significant decreases in most types of outdoor physical activity and passive enjoyment of nature (e.g., smelling plants/rain). We found a positive association between visibility of greenspace and perceived stress and anxiety, which not only contradicts previous research findings, but was especially surprising given that overall there was a decrease in perceived stress from 2019–2020. We did not detect associations between perceived access/use of nature and mental health. However, higher depressive symptoms were associated with exposure to more COVID-19-related stressors (lost employment, death of friends from COVID-19, etc.). Taken together, our results indicate that COVID-19 may serve to prolong or exacerbate mental health issues, rather than create them, in this population and that low quality greenspace may perhaps limit the ability for nature view to buffer mental health during the pandemic.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Contact With Nature as a Mental Health Buffer for Lower Income Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pearson

Horton

Pfeiffer

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Cities

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“…In these cases, indoor plants may have had the potential to balance the need for nature exposure during lockdowns (Leon et al, 2020;Sapano et al, 2021;Tomasso et al, 2021;Dzhambov et al, 2020). In addition, a few studies explored the potential impact of virtual/digital nature contact on human health while staying inside or working as frontline healthcare workers (van Houwelingen-Snippe et al, 2020;Putrino et al, 2020;Zabini et al, 2020). These studies argued that digital nature exposure might substitute for real nature for those who have limited access to green spaces or may not have opportunities and enough time to attain actual nature contact during the emergency period.…”

Section: Types Of Exposurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Psychological wellbeing In addition to actual nature exposure, virtual nature (e.g., digital videos, multisensory nature exposure, virtual reality) was associated with mental health conditions, although the amount of evidence was limited. Only a few studies explored associations between virtual nature and mental health during COVID-19 (Putrino et al, 2020;Zabini et al, 2020;van Houwelingen-Snippe et al, 2020). Zabini et al, (2020) showed that compared to videos of urban areas, watching videos of forested areas (approx.…”

Section: Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature’s contributions in coping with a pandemic in the 21st century: A narrative review of evidence during COVID-19

Labib¹,

Browning²,

Rigolon³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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While COVID-19 lockdowns have slowed coronavirus transmission, such structural measures also have unintended consequences on mental and physical health. Growing evidence shows that exposure to the natural environment (e.g., blue-green spaces) can improve human health and wellbeing. In this narrative review, we synthesized the evidence about nature’s contributions to health and wellbeing during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that during lockdowns, people experienced multiple types of nature, including both outdoors and indoors. Frequency of visits to outdoor natural areas (i.e., public parks) depended on lockdown severity and socio-cultural contexts. Other forms of nature exposure, such as spending time in private gardens and viewing outdoor greenery from windows, may have increased. The majority of the evidence suggests nature exposure during lockdowns was associated with less depression, anxiety, stress, and more happiness and life satisfaction. Additionally, nature exposure was correlated with less physical inactivity and fewer sleep disturbances. Evidence was mixed regarding associations between nature exposure and COVID-related health outcomes, while nature visits might be associated with greater rates of COVID-19 transmission and mortality when proper social distancing measures were not maintained. Findings on whether nature exposure during lockdowns helped ameliorate health inequities by, for example, impacting the health of lower-socioeconomic populations more than their higher-socioeconomic counterparts, were mixed. Based on these findings, we argue that nature exposure may have buffered the negative mental and behavioral impacts of lockdowns during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recovery and resilience during the current and future public health crises might be improved with nature-based solutions, interventions, designs, and governance.

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“…It is expected for these new social rules of conduct to come with consequences for people on communal and personal levels. The concerns grow from not knowing the future situation of our jobs ( Schulte et al, 2020 ) to just wanting to be able to see the light of day outside the confinement of our homes ( van Houwelingen-Snippe et al, 2020 ); but as the word itself entails, isolation and quarantine lead to being away from our communities, and one of the most devastating repercussions of that is a crushing feeling of loneliness ( van Tilburg et al, 2020 ). This sense of disconnectedness ( Gratz et al, 2020 ), together with the stresses and concerns during a pandemic ( Whitehead and Torossian, 2020 ), can influence mental health ( Tso and Park, 2020 ), and consequently health behaviors ( Vanderbruggen et al, 2020 ), and overall physical well-being ( Philip et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered immunoemotional regulatory system in COVID-19: From the origins to opportunities

Pourriyahi

Saghazadeh

Rezaei

2021

Journal of Neuroimmunology

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The emergence of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and the worldwide spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have led to social regulations that caused substantial changes in daily life. The subsequent loneliness and concerns of the pandemic during social distancing, quarantine, and lockdown are psychosocial stressors that negatively affect the immune system. These effects occur through mechanisms controlled by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis that alter immune regulation, namely the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA), which promotes inflammation and diminishes antiviral responses, leading to inadequate protection against viral disease. Unhealthy eating habits, physical inactivity, sleep disturbances, and mental health consequences of COVID-19 add to the pathological effects of loneliness, making immunity against this lethal virus an even tougher fight. Therefore, social isolation, with its unintended consequences, has inherently paradoxical effects on immunity in relation to viral disease. Though this paradox can present a challenge, its acknowledgment can serve as an opportunity to address the associated issues and find ways to mitigate the adverse effects. In this review, we aim to explore, in detail, the pathological effects of the new social norms on immunity and present suggested methods to improve our physical, psychological, and healthcare abilities to fight a viral infection in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Feeling Connected after Experiencing Digital Nature: A Survey Study

Cited by 31 publications

References 54 publications

Contact With Nature as a Mental Health Buffer for Lower Income Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Contact With Nature as a Mental Health Buffer for Lower Income Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nature’s contributions in coping with a pandemic in the 21st century: A narrative review of evidence during COVID-19

Altered immunoemotional regulatory system in COVID-19: From the origins to opportunities

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