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Physiological and Psychological Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Middle-Aged Females
The natural environment is increasingly recognized as an effective counter to urban stress, and “Forest Therapy” has recently attracted attention as a relaxation and stress management activity with demonstrated clinical efficacy. The present study assessed the physiological and psychological effects...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690920/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26633447 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph121214984 |
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author | Ochiai, Hiroko Ikei, Harumi Song, Chorong Kobayashi, Maiko Miura, Takashi Kagawa, Takahide Li, Qing Kumeda, Shigeyoshi Imai, Michiko Miyazaki, Yoshifumi |
author_facet | Ochiai, Hiroko Ikei, Harumi Song, Chorong Kobayashi, Maiko Miura, Takashi Kagawa, Takahide Li, Qing Kumeda, Shigeyoshi Imai, Michiko Miyazaki, Yoshifumi |
author_sort | Ochiai, Hiroko |
collection | PubMed |
description | The natural environment is increasingly recognized as an effective counter to urban stress, and “Forest Therapy” has recently attracted attention as a relaxation and stress management activity with demonstrated clinical efficacy. The present study assessed the physiological and psychological effects of a forest therapy program on middle-aged females. Seventeen Japanese females (62.2 ± 9.4 years; mean ± standard deviation) participated in this experiment. Pulse rate, salivary cortisol level, and psychological indices were measured on the day before forest therapy and on the forest therapy day. Pulse rate and salivary cortisol were significantly lower than baseline following forest therapy, indicating that subjects were in a physiologically relaxed state. Subjects reported feeling significantly more “comfortable,” “relaxed,” and “natural” according to the semantic differential (SD) method. The Profile of Mood State (POMS) negative mood subscale score for “tension–anxiety” was significantly lower, while that for “vigor” was significantly higher following forest therapy. Our study revealed that forest therapy elicited a significant (1) decrease in pulse rate, (2) decrease in salivary cortisol levels, (3) increase in positive feelings, and (4) decrease in negative feelings. In conclusion, there are substantial physiological and psychological benefits of forest therapy on middle-aged females. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4690920 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-46909202016-01-06 Physiological and Psychological Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Middle-Aged Females Ochiai, Hiroko Ikei, Harumi Song, Chorong Kobayashi, Maiko Miura, Takashi Kagawa, Takahide Li, Qing Kumeda, Shigeyoshi Imai, Michiko Miyazaki, Yoshifumi Int J Environ Res Public Health Communication The natural environment is increasingly recognized as an effective counter to urban stress, and “Forest Therapy” has recently attracted attention as a relaxation and stress management activity with demonstrated clinical efficacy. The present study assessed the physiological and psychological effects of a forest therapy program on middle-aged females. Seventeen Japanese females (62.2 ± 9.4 years; mean ± standard deviation) participated in this experiment. Pulse rate, salivary cortisol level, and psychological indices were measured on the day before forest therapy and on the forest therapy day. Pulse rate and salivary cortisol were significantly lower than baseline following forest therapy, indicating that subjects were in a physiologically relaxed state. Subjects reported feeling significantly more “comfortable,” “relaxed,” and “natural” according to the semantic differential (SD) method. The Profile of Mood State (POMS) negative mood subscale score for “tension–anxiety” was significantly lower, while that for “vigor” was significantly higher following forest therapy. Our study revealed that forest therapy elicited a significant (1) decrease in pulse rate, (2) decrease in salivary cortisol levels, (3) increase in positive feelings, and (4) decrease in negative feelings. In conclusion, there are substantial physiological and psychological benefits of forest therapy on middle-aged females. MDPI 2015-12-01 2015-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4690920/ /pubmed/26633447 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph121214984 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Communication Ochiai, Hiroko Ikei, Harumi Song, Chorong Kobayashi, Maiko Miura, Takashi Kagawa, Takahide Li, Qing Kumeda, Shigeyoshi Imai, Michiko Miyazaki, Yoshifumi Physiological and Psychological Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Middle-Aged Females |
title | Physiological and Psychological Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Middle-Aged Females |
title_full | Physiological and Psychological Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Middle-Aged Females |
title_fullStr | Physiological and Psychological Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Middle-Aged Females |
title_full_unstemmed | Physiological and Psychological Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Middle-Aged Females |
title_short | Physiological and Psychological Effects of a Forest Therapy Program on Middle-Aged Females |
title_sort | physiological and psychological effects of a forest therapy program on middle-aged females |
topic | Communication |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690920/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26633447 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph121214984 |
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