The Effect of Indoor Foliage Plants on Health and Discomfort Symptoms among Office Workers

Fjeld, T.; Veiersted, Bo; Sandvik, Leiv; Riise, Geir; Levy, Finn

doi:10.1177/1420326x9800700404

Cited by 126 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Interaction with nature can increase self-esteem and mood [32,38,62], reduce anger [63], and improve general psychological well-being with positive effects on emotions and behavior [13,64]. These interactions can also have positive effects on cognitive function such as academic performance [68] and the ability to perform mentally challenging tasks [15]. Additionally, this review suggests that interactions with nature may have physical health benefits such as stress reduction [35,70,71] or reduced mortality rates [24] as well as social, including facilitating social interaction [16,72] or reducing crime and violence in urban areas [25,63].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are the Benefits of Interacting with Nature?

Keniger

Gaston

Irvine

et al. 2013

IJERPH

930

637

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There is mounting empirical evidence that interacting with nature delivers measurable benefits to people. Reviews of this topic have generally focused on a specific type of benefit, been limited to a single discipline, or covered the benefits delivered from a particular type of interaction. Here we construct novel typologies of the settings, interactions and potential benefits of people-nature experiences, and use these to organise an assessment of the benefits of interacting with nature. We discover that evidence for the benefits of interacting with nature is geographically biased towards high latitudes and Western societies, potentially contributing to a focus on certain types of settings and benefits. Social scientists have been the most active researchers in this field. Contributions from ecologists are few in number, perhaps hindering the identification of key ecological features of the natural environment that deliver human benefits. Although many types of benefits have been studied, benefits to physical health, cognitive performance and psychological well-being have received much more attention than the social or spiritual benefits of interacting with nature, despite the potential for important consequences arising from the latter. The evidence for most benefits is correlational, and although there are several experimental studies, little as yet is known about the mechanisms that are important for delivering these benefits. For example, we do not know which characteristics of natural settings (e.g., biodiversity, level of disturbance, proximity, accessibility) are most important for triggering a beneficial interaction, and how these characteristics vary in importance among cultures, geographic regions and socio-economic groups. These are key directions for future research if we are to design landscapes that promote high quality interactions between people and nature in a rapidly urbanising world.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are the Benefits of Interacting with Nature?

Keniger

Gaston

Irvine

et al. 2013

IJERPH

930

637

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“…Some studies suggest that viewing nature from a window can lead to a reduction in the use of healthcare facilities in a prison (Moore 1981) and faster recovery from surgery in a hospital (Ulrich 1984). In the indoor context, plants have been associated with an increase in pain tolerance (Lohr and Pearson-Mims 2000;Park, Mattson, and Kim 2004), decrease in self-reported health and discomfort symptoms (Fjeld et al 1998), and a decrease in self-reported sick leave among office employees (Bringslimark, Hartig, and Patil 2007).…”

Section: Evidence-based Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits from wood interior in a hospital room: a preference study

Nyrud

Bringslimark

Bysheim

2013

Architectural Science Review

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New design strategies, focusing on implementing the psychologically beneficial effects of nature in the built environment, are increasingly being implemented in building design. The design of built settings is of particular importance in environments intended for healing, such as hospitals. Preferences for a setting are thought to be indicators of factors in the environment that can enhance health and well-being both for patients and those who care for them. The aim of this study is to investigate preferences for natural construction materials in patient rooms. An online survey was distributed to all employees in one department at a Norwegian hospital. Respondents (n = 93) included nurses and auxiliary nurses, physicians, and other hospital staff. In the survey, the employees were asked to evaluate 10 computer-manipulated pictures of patient rooms with different amounts and dispositions of wood on surfaces. The results indicate that employees prefer patient rooms with an intermediate degree of wood. The least liked room was the room with pine wood on all surfaces.

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“…A similar experiment was conducted in a workplace on a sample constituted by 51 healthy workers in presence and absence of indoor plants in their office. It was found that the discomfort symptoms average was 23% lower during the period in presence of plant and the coughing and fatigue complaints decreased by 37% and 30% respectively [11]. Cognitive performance was investigated by Raanaas et al [12], showing that the presence of natural elements in an office environment affects positively cognitive performance during a fatigue task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%