Abstract
Although the health benefits of exercise and exposure to nature are well established, most evidence of their interaction comes from acute observations of single sessions of activity. However, documenting improved health outcomes requires ongoing interventions, measurement of multiple outcomes, and longitudinal analyses. We conducted a pilot study to guide the development of a protocol for future longitudinal studies that would assess multiple physiological and psychological outcomes. Herein, we report psychological outcomes measured from thirty-eight participants before and after three conditions: a 50 min walk on a forest path, a 50 min walk along a busy road, and a period of activities of daily living. Changes in positive and negative affect, anxiety, perceived stress, and working memory are reported. We benchmark these results to existing studies that used similar protocols and also identify elements of the protocol that might impair recruitment or retention of subjects in longer-term studies. Linear mixed-models regression revealed that walking improved psychological state when compared to activities of daily living, regardless of walk environment (p < 0.05). Comparison of mean differences showed that forest walks yielded the largest and most consistent improvements in psychological state. Thus, despite a protocol that required a 3.5 h time commitment per laboratory visit, the beneficial effects of walking and exposure to a forested environment were observed.
Highlights
Mental health diagnoses and the need for mental health treatments have increased substantially in recent decades
We report on lessons learned in our efforts to recruit and retain equal numbers instead of study-related walking
We report on lessons learned in our efforts to recruit and retain of men and women for a protocol that required multiple visits to the laboratory, some lasting up to equal numbers of men and women for a protocol that required multiple visits to the laboratory, some
Summary
Mental health diagnoses and the need for mental health treatments have increased substantially in recent decades. Current estimates suggest that 20% of adults experience a mental illness in a given year, and 4.6% experience a serious mental illness in 2018 [1]. Some of the increase in diagnoses of mental illness across socio-economic groups has been attributed to the stresses of urbanization and lack of contact with nature [2,3,4,5]. Awareness of the relationship between mental health. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 4338; doi:10.3390/ijerph16224338 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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