Abstract
Immersion in forest environments was shown to produce beneficial effects to human health, in particular psychophysical relaxation, leading to its growing recognition as a form of integrative medicine. However, limited evidence exists about the statistical significance of the effects and their association with external and environmental variables and personal characteristics. This experimental study aimed to substantiate the very concept of forest therapy by means of the analysis of the significance of its effects on the mood states of anxiety, depression, anger and confusion. Seven forest therapy sessions were performed in remote areas and a control one in an urban park, with participants allowed to attend only one session, resulting in 162 psychological self-assessment questionnaires administered before and after each session. Meteorological comfort, the concentration of volatile organic compounds in the forest atmosphere and environmental coherence were identified as likely important external and environmental variables. Under certain conditions, forest therapy sessions performed in remote sites were shown to outperform the control session, at least for anxiety, anger and confusion. A quantitative analysis of the association of the outcomes with personal sociodemographic characteristics revealed that only sporting habits and age were significantly associated with the outcomes for certain psychological domains.
Highlights
The direct exposure to forest environments was attributed a wide range of straight benefits to human health
ANOVA test was performed on the pre-intervention POMS questionnaires [39] across all forest therapy sessions including the control session (FTSC)
The results showed no statistically significant differences among groups in terms of pre-intervention scores for all mood states: anxiety (DF = 7; DF error = 154; F = 1.59; p = 0.141), depression (DF = 7; DF error = 154; F =1.66; p = 0.124), anger (DF = 7; DF error = 154; F = 0.64; p = 0.725) and confusion (DF = 7; DF error = 154; F = 1.71; p = 0.111)
Summary
The Italian Alpine Club and the Institute of Bioeconomy of the National Research. Council arranged seven forest therapy sessions from August to October 2020. All sessions, named FTS1 to FTS7, were performed in Italy at remote forest areas (at least 20 km from the nearest town with more than 10,000 inhabitants or trafficked road). All sessions had a duration of 3.5 ± 0.5 h, along paths with total lengths not exceeding 4 km and uphill gradients smaller than 150 m. A further control session, named FTSC, was performed in June 2021, in an urban park with an area of about 4 hectares, located downtown in the city of Florence, Italy 400,000 inhabitants) and surrounded by buildings and trafficked roads.
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