Physiological and Psychological Assessments for the Establishment of Evidence-Based Forest Healing Programs

Abstract

This study aimed to establish a health and medical foundation for forest healing programs and provide a basis for developing an evaluation system for such programs. While the number of visitors to forests and interest in forest healing effects are increasing, few studies have examined the various indicators of the persistent changes in forest healing effects. Therefore, this study conducted pre-, post-, and follow-up experiments on 87 health and clinical indicators in a sample of 88 adolescent participants. The relationships between pre-, post-, and follow-up experiment results for each indicator were analyzed. Of the 87 indicators, 46 showed significant changes, including systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol, serotonin, vitamin D, CD16+CD56 count, interferon-γ, resilience, and self-esteem. The findings are significant for studying diverse participants and indicators and lay the foundation for developing forest healing programs by clarifying aspects such as the indicators suitable for short-term observation versus the indicators requiring long-term observation. Based on these analyses, the results of this study are expected to be useful when conducting research to establish an evidence-based forest healing program in the future.

Forest Therapy Trails: A Conceptual Framework and Scoping Review of Research

“…We also tallied 81 different physiological measures, most of which assessed one or more aspects of heart rate (heart rate variability, RR interval) (n = 63, 46.7%) and blood pressure (systolic/diastolic) (n = 48, 35.6%) and tied to broader health concepts of stress-arousal and relaxation [90,91] (Table 1). Less-often studied measures include indicators of immune response and inflammation such as natural killer (NK) cell activity and inflammatory cytokines [64,92], physical health and mobility measures such as the Brief Physical Activity Assessment and Neck Disability Index [93,94], and cognitive function such as EEG [95,96].…”

Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Physical Health, Mental Health, and Health Behaviors

“…One study evaluated health outcomes immediately after program completion and 3, 4, and 7 days later [5], while another explored the effects immediately after program completion and Forests 2023, 14, 2236 2 of 12 2 and 4 weeks later [6]. In contrast to most forest therapy program studies that have predominantly examined short-term effects, a few preceding studies have investigated long-term effects up to 4 weeks after program completion [6,7]. Specifically, considered the long-term effects over four weeks to overcome the limitation of primarily focusing on the short-term effects of forest therapy programs [7].…”

“…In contrast to most forest therapy program studies that have predominantly examined short-term effects, a few preceding studies have investigated long-term effects up to 4 weeks after program completion [6,7]. Specifically, considered the long-term effects over four weeks to overcome the limitation of primarily focusing on the short-term effects of forest therapy programs [7]. However, the long-term effects have received little attention.…”

Research Trends on the Effects of Forest Therapy in Korea and Ways to Improve the Level of Medical Evidence: A Scoping Review

“…In addition, studies on forest therapy are conducted by analyzing its effect on health promotion through diverse subjects (Song and Bang, 2017;Lee et al, 2023;Lee et al, 2016;Chae and Lee, 2020), and continuous efforts are made to reveal the acceptable medical effects in health and medical care (Park et al, 2021b). However, there has been no explicit agreement on the concept of the medical effects of forest therapy or the research methods to reveal them.…”