Physiological and psychological responses of young males during spring-time walks in urban parks

Abstract

BackgroundIt is widely believed that contact with the natural environment can improve physical and mental health. Urban green spaces may provide city residents with these benefits; however, there is a lack of empirical field research on the health benefits of urban parks.MethodsThis field experiment was performed in May. Seventeen males aged 21.2 ± 1.7 years (mean ± standard deviation) were instructed to walk predetermined 15-minute courses in an urban park and a nearby city area (control). Heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured to assess physiological responses. The semantic differential (SD) method, Profile of Mood States (POMS), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used to measure psychological responses.ResultsHeart rate was significantly lower while walking in the urban park than while walking in the city street. Furthermore, the urban park walk led to higher parasympathetic nervous activity and lower sympathetic nervous activity compared with the walk through the city street. Subjective evaluations were generally in accordance with physiological reactions, and significantly higher scores were observed for the ‘comfortable’, ‘natural’, and ‘relaxed’ parameters following the urban park walk. After the urban park walk, the score for the ‘vigor’ subscale of the POMS was significantly higher, whereas that for negative feelings such as ‘tension-anxiety’ and ‘fatigue’ was significantly lower. The score for the anxiety dimension of the STAI was also significantly lower after the urban park walk.ConclusionsPhysiological and psychological results from this field experiment provide evidence for the physiological and psychological benefits of urban green spaces. A brief spring-time walk in an urban park shifted sympathetic/parasympathetic balance and improved mood state.

Six-Step Model of Nature-Based Therapy Process

“…These findings are consistent with studies showing that positive emotion is the first to appear when humans encounter a natural environment [34]. They are also consistent with previous findings showing that when humans are in a natural environment, negative emotions will decrease while positive emotions will increase [13,17,20,27,[35][36][37][38].…”

Physiological and psychological effects of gardening activity in older adults

“…According to the SDM questionnaire scores, older women felt more “comfortable” and “relaxed” after carrying out the plant activity than after carrying out the control activity. These results, which show the psychological benefits of gardening, are partly related to findings from previous research carried out in forests regarding the positive effect of nature on humans . Thus, the psychological benefits of gardening include improved mood state in older adults, and are expected to play a very important role in improving mental health in the future.…”

Comparison of the effects of olfactory stimulation by air-dried and high-temperature-dried wood chips of hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) on prefrontal cortex activity

“…Recent studies have focused on the physiological relaxing effects of nature-derived stimulation [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], and there are several reports on the effects of wood odor on humans [9][10][11]. Miyazaki et al [9] reported that inhalation of Taiwan hinoki oil odor decreases systolic blood pressure.…”