Acute effects of exposure to a traditional rural environment on urban dwellers: a crossover field study in terraced farmland.

Juyoung Lee,Takahide Kagawa,Tatsuro Ohira,Bum-Jin Park,Yoshifumi Miyazaki

doi:10.3390/ijerph120201874

Abstract

Despite an increasing attention and public preference for rural amenities, little evidence is available on the health benefits of a rural environment. In this study, we identified physiological and psychological benefits of exposure to a rural environment using multiparametric methods. Twelve young male adults participated in a 3-day field experiment (mean ± standard deviation age, 22.3 ± 1.3 years). Sleeping environment, diet program, physical activities, and other factors possibly affecting physiological responses were controlled during experiment period. For all participants, salivary cortisol concentration, heart rate variability, and blood pressure were measured at rural and urban field sites. Self-evaluation questionnaires were administered to analyze the psychological states in two different environments. Volatile compounds in the air were also analyzed to investigate air quality. The data were compared between rural and urban environments. The data showed that exposure to a rural environment reduced stress hormone secretion and sympathetic nervous activity and increased parasympathetic nervous activity. Short-term exposure to a rural environment also improved mood states. Our findings indicate that exposure to a rural environment effectively reduced physiological stress and enhanced psychological well-being.

Highlights

More than 50% of the world’s population currently lives in cities [1]
Systolic blood pressure after short-term exposure to real environments was significantly decreased in the rural environment (114.1 ± 3.4 mmHg) relative to that in the urban environment (122.6 ± 3.4 mmHg; p < 0.01; Figure 3 top), no significant differences were observed in the baseline and pre-exposure periods
Diastolic blood pressure in the post-exposure period was significantly lower in the rural environment (55.4 ± 2.4 mmHg) than in the urban environment (59.3 ± 2.1 mmHg; p < 0.01; Figure 3 middle), with no significant differences in the baseline and pre-exposure periods

Summary

Introduction

More than 50% of the world’s population currently lives in cities [1]. Urbanization is one of the most fundamental characteristics in environmental changes, involving a broad range of environmental issues such as landscape change [2], air pollution [3], and climate warming [4]. Urbanization has often been regarded as a potential health risk factor in the field of environmental health [5]. WHO (2010) [9] points out that urban environments tend to discourage physical activity because of a variety of factors, including high-volume traffic, heavy use of motorized transportation, and poor air quality. Recent studies have reported that urbanization is increasingly linked with chronic non communicable diseases, including mental health disorders, obesity, type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease [10,11,12,13,14,15,16], which is partly associated with nutritional transition in modern society [17]

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