Stress-Reducing Effects of Real and Artificial Nature in a Hospital Waiting Room

Abstract

Objectives: This field study investigated the potential stress-reducing effects of exposure to real or artificial nature on patients in a hospital waiting room. Additionally, it was investigated whether perceived attractiveness of the room could explain these effects. Design: In this between-patients experimental design, patients were exposed to one of the following: real plants, posters of plants, or no nature (control). These conditions were alternately applied to two waiting rooms. Location: The location of this study was two waiting rooms at the Radiology Department of a Dutch hospital. Subjects: The subjects comprised 457 patients (60% female and 40% male) who were mostly scheduled for echocardiogram, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography scans, or nuclear research. Results: Patients exposed to real plants, as well as patients exposed to posters of plants, report lower levels of experienced stress compared to the control condition. Further analyses show that these small but significant effects of exposure to nature are partially mediated by the perceived attractiveness of the waiting room. Conclusions: Natural elements in hospital environments have the potential to reduce patients' feelings of stress. By increasing the attractiveness of the waiting room by adding either real plants or posters of plants, hospitals can create a pleasant atmosphere that positively influences patients' well-being.

Cognitive and affective responses to natural scenes: Effects of low level visual properties on preference, cognitive load and eye-movements

“…Nature exposure therapy has been found to be effective for clinical stress management (Villani & Riva, 2012), and stress and anxiety reduction for deployed military medics (Stetz et al, 2011). Nature posters and plants in hospital waiting rooms have been shown to reduce patient stress (Beukeboom, Langeveld, & Tanja-Dijkstra, 2012) and even perceptions of pain after undergoing painful bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (Lechtzin et al, 2010). From these studies, it is evident that exposure to nature reliably produces improvements in affect and reductions in both perceived and physiological stress, with the minimum requirement for the effects being brief viewing of nature scenes.…”

Bed of roses? The role of garden space in older people's well-being

“…The latter may operate by way of the mechanism of biophilia, the theory that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems (Wilson, 1984;see, e.g. Beil and Hanes, 2013;Beukeboom et al, 2012;Lottrup et al, 2013;van den Berg et al, 2010;Ward Thompson et al, 2012), or through reduction in noise annoyance (e.g. trees and greenery absorb sound from traffic) (Li et al, 2012).…”

Art and Healthcare - Healing Potential of Artistic Interventions in Medical Settings

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