Abstract
Various effects of forest healing on health have been reported, but a certification system to assess the effectiveness of forest healing programs does not exist. In this study, a systematic review (SR) on the “health benefits of forests” and “meta-analysis of forest therapy” was conducted after analyzing the status and level of evidence of 75 forest healing programs that were conducted post-certification in South Korea. The SR for “health benefits of forests” distinguished between activities and time, resulting in 90.9% of walking activities for more than an hour under psychological health, and 100.0% of exercise activities for less than an hour under physiological health. However, the effect of indirect activities performed for more than an hour was unknown. Thus, we confirmed that many indoor activities in the field had low effect size or no established basis regarding the feasibility of its operation. The SR on “meta-analysis of forest therapy” to check whether the program was effective. The highest number of healing effects were obtained for blood pressure (32), followed by psychological depression (24). The findings of this can serve as baseline data to facilitate future development and dissemination of evidence-based forest healing programs.
Highlights
In 2018, the public value of forests in $186 million, of which $1.52 million (8.3%) was contributed by forest recreation function, which was the fourth highest contributor
As there has not been an established basis for evaluating forest healing programs, we analyzed forest healing programs in detail to identify the most common characteristics and variables which determine forest healing effects through systematic review and meta-analysis
This study analyzed the current status of forest healing programs operating in Korea and evaluated the evidence for their effects
Summary
In 2018, the public value of forests in $186 million, of which $1.52 million (8.3%) was contributed by forest recreation function, which was the fourth highest contributor This contribution had increased by $574,761 compared to $1.43 million in 2014, whereas the value contributed by “forest healing” increased from $2.02 million in 2014 to $4.30 million in 2018 [1]. With the ongoing increase in public interest in forest recreation and healing, the number of operational therapeutic forests with forest healing programs have increased. The total number of national and public therapeutic forests steadily increased to 5 by 2015 and 32 by 2020 (Figure 1). In line with this increasing number of therapeutic forests, the number of visitors to these forests to experience forest healing have increased rapidly. The number of visitors was merely 1067 in 2009, but increased to 1.7 million in 2015, 1.8 million in 2019, and 1.5 million in 2020
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