Physical, psychological and emotional effects of nature-based affordances of green physical activity

Abstract

Physical inactivity and mental disorders are considered to be two urgent health challenges and strongly associated with non-communicable diseases in today's highly urbanised society (World Health Organization, 2010a). Green Physical Activity (PA) is suggested to be a tangible means to effectively promote physical health and mental wellbeing for urban residents (Pretty, 2004). In order to increase the probability of application for a wider urban population, this thesis focused on the first level of green PA (viewing nature indoors) for designing indoor PA environment. Lacking an appropriate underpinning theoretical framework, the ecological dynamics theory was proposed to guide the experimental setting and offer theoretical explanations. The aim was to examine the experience and effects of nature-based affordances for green PA. A theory-guided PA setting was created to examine varying richness of nature-based information (dynamic or static images, presence of visual-only or visual-acoustic information, single or multiple videos) with qualitative and quantitative data collected and compared to a more representative PA environment in three studies. The same physical measurements were made in all PA conditions, including heart rate, estimates of energy expenditure, speed, distance and rated perceived exertion. Responses to two questionnaires for psychological and emotional assessments were recorded, along with follow-up interviews with a sub-sample of participants in each study. v 2.5 THE NEED FOR A REPRESENTATIVE COMPARISON DESIGN 41 2.6 CONCLUSION 42 CHAPTER.3 45 METHODOLOGY 45 3.1 INTRODUCTION 46 3.2 STUDY DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTAL SETTING 49

Physical Activity in Nature: An Ecological Dynamics Perspective

“…When designing a nature-based exercise programme for health promotion, a careful consideration of how to inform an effective environment to accrue expected benefits or outcomes of exercise is vital. The consideration would be across various aspects affecting the effectiveness of exercises such as the presentation of essential information, available physical activities, exercise intensity, duration, and the target group (Yeh, 2017). Here, the presentation of essential information is not only suggesting the display of key information for the participants to perceive but also removing the distracting stimulus for participants.…”