Effect of Nature Walks on Depression and Anxiety: A Systematic Review

Kotera, Yasuhiro; Lyons, Melinda; Vione, Kátia Correa; Norton, Briony A.

doi:10.3390/su13074015

Cited by 70 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…A recent systematic review on the effects of nature walks on states of anxiety and depression evidenced clear and significant effects on anxiety but somewhat inconclusive effects on depression [70], in agreement with the results of this study. However, most of previous studies dealing with the short-term effects of forest therapy sessions, in particular, using POMS questionnaires, appear to lack a proper consideration of the nature of the statistical distributions of the changes-from-baseline.…”

Section: International Experiencessupporting

confidence: 92%

Short-Term Effects of Forest Therapy on Mood States: A Pilot Study

Meneguzzo

Albanese

Antonelli

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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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.

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Section: International Experiencessupporting

confidence: 92%

Short-Term Effects of Forest Therapy on Mood States: A Pilot Study

Meneguzzo

Albanese

Antonelli

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…The high-risk studies [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] were excluded from the analysis. All other studies [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ] were included in the statistical analysis. Based on the RoB analysis, one study was excluded for statistical analysis as it was considered as having a high risk of bias [ 21 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The keywords used in the search were “depression”, “anxiety”, “nature walk”, and “green space”. The study also used reference searching as a snowballing method to find additional articles using as a starting point the recently published systematic review [ 8 ].…”

Section: Tools and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The time spent in contact with nature, performing physical activities, has especially been examined to determine the effectiveness of nature-based exercises as a form of therapeutical intervention for the promotion of mental health [ 7 ]. The possibility of using low-intensity physical activity in nature—such as walking in natural settings - to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety has recently attracted the attention of the research community [ 8 ]. During the last decade, several scientific experiments empirically examined the effect of nature walk on anxiety and depression [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Nature Walk as an Intervention for Anxiety and Depression

Grassini

2022

JCM

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Scientific research has widely examined the therapeutic and health benefits of being in contact with natural environments. Nature walk have been proposed as a cost-effective and inclusive method for successfully exploiting nature for the promotion of health and well-being. Depression and anxiety symptoms have been shown to benefit from nature walk. Despite recent empirical findings published in the scientific literature, a summary quantitative work on the effect of nature walk on depression and anxiety does not yet exist. The present systematic review and meta-analysis quantitatively analyze and qualitatively discuss the studies published on the effect of nature walk on depression and anxiety published during the past decade. A database search as well as snowballing methods were used to retrieve eligible articles. The research question and literature search were based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. Based on screening and retrieval processes, seven studies met the eligibility criteria and were then included in the quantitative meta-analysis. Risk of bias (RoB) analysis was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. After a qualitative evaluation of the studies, data from six experiments were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis show that nature walk effectively improve mental health. The findings were confirmed for the experiments reporting the quantitative data within groups (pre- and post-test) and between groups (experimental vs. control group).

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“…Based on data presented in Section 3.1 and shown in Figure 3, the average percentage reductions of the indexes of anxiety (-77%), depression(-73.8%), anger (-76.7%) and confusion (-54%), computed over professionally-conducted sessions (FTS2 to FTS7) after weighting for the number of participants to each session, were generally higher than reported in other studies, such as in a recent systematic review [65], where results derived from the administration of reduced POMS questionnaires, including in Europe. A recent systematic review on the effects of nature walks on state anxiety and depression evidenced clear and significant effects on anxiety but somehow inconclusive effects on depression [66]. Figure 3 shows that, although anxiety was the most significantly and strongly reduced index, depression was significantly lowered in three out of six professionally conducted forest therapy sessions, which could be considered an especially promising result.…”

Section: Overall Psychological Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 89%

Short-term Psychological Effects of Forest Therapy: Early Evidence in Italy

Meneguzzo¹,

Antonelli²,

Baraldi³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Immersion in forest environments was shown to produce beneficial effects to human health, in particular psychophysical relaxation, so much that this practice is increasingly recognized as a form of integrative medicine. Limited evidence exists about both statistical significance and size of the effects conditioned on personal characteristics, as well as on the main external variables. The primary purpose of this study was to substantiate the very concept of forest therapy by means of the quantification and significance of the psychological effects, stratified by gender, age groups and place of residence. A preliminary qualitative analysis of the main determinants, in particular the method of conducting, the meteorological comfort and the concentration of volatile organic compounds in the forest atmosphere, was afforded. Seven forest therapy sessions were performed in late summer though early fall, resulting in 150 psychological self-assessment questionnaires administered before and after each session. The results were comparable or even better than others reported in the international literature. Moreover, preliminary evidence arose about different functionality towards specific psychological indexes conditioned at least on gender and age groups, as well as meteorological comfort, structured programs and, possibly, volatile organic compounds showed an impact on the outcomes.

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Effect of Nature Walks on Depression and Anxiety: A Systematic Review

Cited by 70 publications

References 71 publications

Short-Term Effects of Forest Therapy on Mood States: A Pilot Study

Short-Term Effects of Forest Therapy on Mood States: A Pilot Study

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Nature Walk as an Intervention for Anxiety and Depression

Short-term Psychological Effects of Forest Therapy: Early Evidence in Italy

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