Physiological and Psychological Effects of Walking in Urban Parks and Its Imagery in Different Seasons in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Evidence from Matsudo City, Japan

Health and wellbeing benefits of urban forests in winter: a narrative review

Urban trees and green spaces, hereafter, urban forests, are known to contribute to human health and wellbeing. However, research has predominantly focused on warm seasons. To understand whether these benefits extend to winter months, when vegetation is dormant, we conducted a narrative review of the health outcomes associated with urban forests in winter in cities with cold climates. We synthesized findings from 21 studies originating from Asia, Europe and North America. The most studied health outcomes were mental health, physical activity and physiological relaxation, all showing a positive relationship with urban forest exposure. These finding appear similar to those observed in warmer seasons. However, more studies are needed, on a diversity of health outcomes, to draw more robust conclusions in this emerging research field. Future research on urban forests should therefore consider winter and the effect of seasonality to improve health and wellbeing of urban dwellers in all seasons.

Current methodologies of greenspace exposure and mental health research-a scoping review

Introduction

Greenspaces can provide an important resource for human mental health. A growing body of literature investigates the interaction and the influence of diverse greenspace exposures. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the complex connection between greenspace and mental health, a variety of perspectives and methodological combinations are needed. The aim of this review is to assess the current methodologies researching greenspace and mental health.

Methods

A scoping review was conducted. Four electronic databases (Pubmed, Embase, PsycInfo, Web of Science) were searched for relevant studies. A wide range of greenspace and mental health keywords were included to provide a comprehensive representation of the body of research. Relevant information on publication characteristics, types of greenspaces, mental health outcomes, and measurements of greenspace exposure and mental health was extracted and assessed.

Results

338 studies were included. The included studies encompassed a multitude of methods, as well as outcomes for both greenspace and mental health. 28 combinations were found between seven categories each for greenspace and mental health assessment. Some pairings such as geoinformation systems for greenspace assessment and questionnaires investigating mental health were used much more frequently than others, implying possible research gaps. Furthermore, we identified problems and inconsistences in reporting of greenspace types and mental health outcomes.

Discussion

The identified methodological variety is a potential for researching the complex connections between greenspace and mental health. Commonly used combinations can provide important insights. However, future research needs to emphasize other perspectives in order to understand how to create living environments with mental health benefits. For this purpose, interdisciplinary research is necessary.

How can plant-enriched natural environments benefit human health: a narrative review of relevant theories

Plant-enriched environments, the most common terrestrial landscapes, are usually coded as "green space" in urban studies. To understand how these natural environments can benefit human health, many theories have been developed, such as the well-known Attention Restoration Theory. Nowadays, more theories are emerging with regard to various and complex health dimensions. In this context, we searched online databases (from 2000 to 2022) and conducted a narrative review aiming to introduce relevant theories concerning psychological (e.g. Perceptual Fluency Account and Conditioned Restoration Theory), physiological (e.g. volatile organic compounds and environmental microbiomes), and behavioural (e.g. physical activity and social contact) perspectives. We also slightly mentioned some limitations and directions to be considered when using these theories. These results may offer general readers insights into the value of nature exposure and also help relevant researchers with study design and result interpretation.

A systematic review of the anxiety-alleviation benefits of exposure to the natural environment

Research suggests that exposure to natural environments can be beneficial for health, such as reducing physical illness and improving mood and cognitive ability. The potential benefits of nature have come into focus at a time when mental health issues are growing globally. Here, we have selected 24 studies from four databases for meta-analysis to explore the effects of exposure to the natural environment on the anxiety of the human body and summarize the influencing factors on the anxiety relief effect. A random-effect meta-analysis of anxiety state changes before and after exposure to natural environment shows that natural exposure effectively alleviated human anxiety (SMD -1.28, 95% CI: -1.65 to -0.92). The overall quality of the included papers, assessed using the PEDro scale, is considered to vary considerably, but most of the papers are rated between 4 and 7 which is considered fair or good. In addition, we have also investigated the potential moderators of anxiety-relieving effects of the nature. Our results shows that the age and exposure time of the subjects are related to the effect of anxiety relief. The results of the subgroup analysis of moderators prove that compared with the middle-aged people (SMD -0.63, 95% CI: -1.13 to -0.12), young people (SMD -1.50, 95% CI: -1.90 to -1.10) get better anxiety alleviation effect in the natural environment. In terms of exposure time, compared with 0.5-2 h (SMD -0.18, 95% CI: -0.59 to -0.23) and >2 h (SMD -0.84, 95% CI: -1.40 to -0.27) exposure periods, subjects get the maximum anxiety relief benefit when they spent <0.5 h (SMD -1.60, 95% CI: -1.93 to -1.27) in the natural environment. However, the quality of the included studies varies greatly and there is a significant heterogeneity in the meta-analysis. Study location, natural environment type and other moderator factors have no obvious correlation with anxiety-alleviation effect of the nature. A higher quality and more comprehensive study needs to be carried out to find out more moderators about the effects of the natural environment on anxiety alleviation. Further experimental studies should also be conducted to determine the mechanism by which natural exposure reduces anxiety so as to provide strong support for the construction and improvement of healthy natural environment.

Young Adults' Perception of Forests Using Landscape-Image-Sketching Technique: A Case Study of Changsha, Central China

The forest-landscape image is the bridge for communication between human beings and the forest. The aim of this paper is to construct the landscape-image conceptual model from the personal perception of the forest, with what people are looking at and how they are viewing themselves as a part of the forest. This research constructed a forest-landscape image by young adults by utilizing the landscape-image-sketching technique and selecting 140 young adults who had lived in Changsha, Central China for ten years, using convenience sampling, during April and May 2018. The results demonstrated that the forest was considered as the people's life world, as rural scenery around the respondents' homes, instead of the perception of the objective forest, an important habitat for animals and a limited resource supplier for human living. In fact, the natural values of the forest, such as the ecological and aesthetic values, received more attention than the social ones of the forest, including the life, production, and cultural values. Finally, it is important to raise the public's awareness of the objective entity of the forest and to guide the variety of experiences for the respondents in the forest.

The Effects of Forest Therapy on the Blood Pressure and Salivary Cortisol Levels of Urban Residents: A Meta-Analysis

Urban residents have a higher risk of hypertension and psychological stress than rural residents. Aside from medical interventions, understanding how to control hypertension and alleviate the stress of urban populations has become a public concern. As an alternative medical measure, forest therapy has shown the effects of normalizing blood pressure (BP) and reducing stress increasingly in recent literature, but this is still inconclusive. In order to systematically verify forest therapy’s effects on the BP and mental stress of urban residents, we conducted meta-analyses to assess the changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and salivary cortisol concentration (SCC; a stress biomarker) between the forest therapy group and urban control group. We searched 4 online databases, and 21 studies on BP involving 2270 participants and 13 studies on SCC involving 1786 participants were included. Through the meta-analysis, the mean difference and confidence interval (CI) estimates indicated that forest therapy significantly reduced participants’ SBP −3.44 (95% CI −5.74, −1.14), DBP −3.07 (95% CI −5.59, −0.54), and SCC −0.07 (95% CI −0.10, −0.04), as compared with urban control. Yet, there was substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 72.87−88.59%) among these studies. We also found that each prediction interval (PI) for SBP (95% PI −13.30, 6.42), DBP (95% PI −15.54, 9.41), and SCC (95% PI −0.18, 0.05) were all much wider than the CIs and contained values above 0. This means that forest therapy may reduce SBP, DBP, and SCC on average, but may not exclude adverse results. Meta-regression analyses showed that participants’ age and baseline SBP levels determined the heterogeneity among SBP studies. After forest therapy, older participants and those with higher baseline SBP levels had greater SBP-lowering effects. Among DBP studies, the primary source of heterogeneity was participants’ baseline DBP levels; participants with higher baseline DBP levels had greater DBP reduction. In subgroup analyses, we discovered that longer-term forest therapy programs (≥20 min) resulted in a greater reduction in BP and SCC than shorter-term forest therapy programs (<20 min). Additionally, seated viewing, walking, or multi-session programs in forests were observed to have similar effects on reducing BP and SCC. Despite extensive analyses, the study did not identify any sources of heterogeneity among forest therapy programs for lowering SCC levels. Overall, we conclude that forest therapy programs have beneficial therapeutic effects on urban residents’ physio-psychological health through lowering BP and relieving stress (reducing SCC). This finding provides solid evidence of the contribution of forest therapy to urban residents’ health and wellbeing.

Seasonal Differences in Physiological Responses to Walking in Urban Parks

The aim of the current study was to assess seasonal differences in physiological responses to walking in urban parks. In total, 51 Japanese male university students participated in this research. During each season, the participants walked for 15 min in an urban park and a city area, which was used as the control site. Heart-rate variability and heart rate were used as physiological indicators. The mean values of each indicator in a comparison between walking in an urban park and a city area were compared according to each season. In addition, to show the physiological effect of walking in an urban park, differences (between walking in an urban park and walking in a city area) were calculated. Then, differences according to each season were compared. The results showed that the participants had increased parasympathetic nervous system activity in all seasons except summer. Moreover, they had decreased sympathetic nervous system activity in spring and fall and decreased heart rate in all seasons. Compared with walking in urban parks in summer, walking in urban parks in spring, fall, and winter had a greater relaxation effect on parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system activities; hence, the physiological effects of walking in urban parks vary based on season.

Verification of Psychophysiological Effects of Satoyama Activities on Older Adult Volunteers and Young People in Post-COVID-19 Society: A Case Study of Matsudo City, Japan

Many scholars have focused on Satoyama, which is characterized by mountains or villages away from the urban spaces. Our objective is to verify its psychophysiological effects on people performing usual Satoyama activities in ignored, small urban green spaces to help people find ways to stay healthy in post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) society. In this study, 12 older adult volunteers from the "Forest around the Mountains" Nonprofit Organization and 12 young people from the university were invited as study subjects. They were asked to observe nature for 10 min and work for 30 min in the small green space "Forest around the Mountains". The Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition (POMS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventor (STAI) were used as psychological scales to detect their psychological restoration and blood pressure before and after the Satoyama activity. Their heart rate during the activity was used as the physiological indicator. The study showed that, as Satoyama volunteers, the older adults group had significant restorative psychophysiological effects during this experiment compared to the younger group; their systolic and diastolic blood pressure dropped significantly after Satoyama activities, On the other hand, the young group have been in the normotensive range before or after Satoyama activities The psychological indicators such as Anger-hostility, Confusion-bewilderment, and Tension-anxiety were significantly lower in the younger group but were still significantly higher than the indicators of the older adults. In general, this study found that Satoyama activities benefited young and older participants, especially older adults with high blood pressure. Satoyama activities in small urban green spaces are thus necessary and worth promoting in the post-COVID-19 era.

Stress and emotional arousal in urban environments: A biosocial study with persons having experienced a first-episode of psychosis and persons at risk

This article examines the entanglement between feelings of stress and discomfort, physiological arousal and urban experiences of persons living with early psychosis. It adopts a biosocial approach, using mixed methods combining ambulatory skin conductance monitoring, mobile interviews and contextual data, collected through GPS and video recordings. The study draws on and strives to cross-fertilize two recent strands of research. The first relates to the use of digital phenotyping in mental health research. The second explores stress and emotional arousal in cities using ambulatory physiological measures. Empirically, the paper is based on fieldwork in Basel, Switzerland, with nine participants recruited within the Basel Early Treatment Service (BEATS), and four controls. We focus on three salient elements in our results: visual perception of moving bodies, spatial transitions and openness and enclosure of the built environment. The analysis shows how these elements elicit physiological responses of arousal and expressed feelings of discomfort. In the concluding section we discuss the methodological implications of these results and suggest the notion of regime of attention as a focus for future biosocial research on urban mental health.

Conceptualizing Walking and Walkability in the Smart City through a Model Composite w2 Smart City Utility Index

This paper explores walking and walkability in the smart city and makes a case for their centrality in the debate on the resilience and sustainability of smart cities, as outlined in the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is argued that, while the human/inhabitant-centric paradigm of urban development consolidates, and research on walking, walkability, and pedestrian satisfaction flourishes, the inroads of ICT render it necessary to reflect on these issues in the conceptually- and geographically-delimited space of the smart city. More importantly, it becomes imperative to make respective findings useful and usable for policymakers. To this end, by approaching walking and walkability through the lens of utility, the objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework in which the relevance of walking and walkability, hereafter referred to as w2, as a distinct subject of research in the smart cities debate is validated. This framework is then employed to construct a model of a composite w2 smart city utility index. With the focus on the development of the conceptual framework, in which the w2 utility index is embedded, this paper constitutes the first conceptual step of the composite index development process. The value added of this paper is three-fold: First, the relevance of walking and walkability as a distinct subject of research in the realm of smart cities research is established. Second, a mismatch between end-users’ satisfaction derived from walking and their perception of walkability and the objective factors influencing walking and walkability is identified and conceptualized by referencing the concept of utility. Third, a model smart city w2 utility index is proposed as a diagnostic and prognostic tool that, in the subsequent stages of research and implementation, will prove useful for decisionmakers and other stakeholders involved in the process of managing smart cities.

Ethnic Differences in Environmental Restoration: Arab and Jewish Women in Israel

Throughout the last few decades, plenty of attention has been paid to restorative environments that positively affect human psychological health. These studies show that restorative environments affect human beings emotionally, physiologically, and cognitively. Some studies focus on the cognitive effects of exposure to restorative environments. A widely used index that measures the cognitive response is the Perceived Restoration Potential Scale (PRS). Most studies employing the PRS have examined differences in human cognitive response between types of urban environments mainly urban versus green ones. We use Hartig's questionnaire to expose differences between types of urban environments and ethnic groups. Variances between Arab and Jewish women were calculated in four environments: home; park; residential and central city environments. The effect of intervening variables such as exposure to thermal, noise, social and CO loads and social discomfort were tested. We find that dissimilar to urban typical built-up environments, green areas are highly restorative. Furthermore, differences in the restorativeness of different urban environments are low though significant. These differences depend on their function, aesthetic qualities, and amount of greenery. Ethno-national differences appear to affect the experience of restoration. While both ethnic related groups experienced a tremendous sense of restoration in parks, Jewish women enjoyed slightly higher levels of restoration mainly at home and in residential environments compared to Arab women who experienced higher sense of restorativness in central city environments. Jewish women experienced higher sense of being away and fascination. From the intervening variables, social discomfort explained 68 percent of the experience of restoration, noise explained 49 percent, thermal load explained 43 percent and ethnicity 14 percent of the variance in PRS.

The Preventive Role of Exercise on the Physiological, Psychological, and Psychophysiological Parameters of Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): A Mini Review

The world has been severely challenged by the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak since the early 2020s. Worldwide, there have been more than 66 million cases of infection and over 3,880,450 deaths caused by this highly contagious disease. All sections of the population including those who are affected, those who are not affected and those who have recovered from this disease, are suffering physiologically, psychologically or psychophysiologically. In this paper we briefly discuss the consequences of COVID-19 on physiological, psychological and psychophysiological vulnerability. We also attempt to provide evidence in support of exercise management as a prevention strategy for improving and minimizing the physiological, psychological and psychophysiological effects of COVID-19. Moderate exercise including walking, yoga and tai-chi to name but a few exercise regimes are critical in preventing COVID-19 and its complications. Governments, public health authorities and the general population should maintain physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent additional physical and mental distress.

Can Residential Greenspace Exposure Improve Pain Experience? A Comparison between Physical Visit and Image Viewing

Reducing the burden of pain via greenspace exposure is a rising research topic. However, insufficient evidence has been found in relation to the environmental effect itself. Residential greenspace, as a convenient but limited natural environment for urban dwellers, has benefits and services yet to be discovered. Therefore, the current study recruited 24 young adults to evaluate the effects of physical visit to, or image viewing of, residential greenspace on pain perception and related psychophysiological outcomes, via simulated pain. Pain threshold and tolerance were recorded via the level of pain stimuli, and pain intensity was evaluated using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The state scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S) and two adjective pairs were employed to measure the state anxiety and subjective stress, respectively. Meanwhile, heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and blood pressure (BP) were measured to investigate physiological responses. Besides, Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) was also employed to assess participants' preference regarding the experimental environments. The results revealed that visiting the greenspace significantly increased the pain threshold and tolerance, while no significant effect was observed for image viewing. On the other hand, no significant difference was observed in pain-related psychophysiological indices between the experimental settings, but significantly negative associations were found between the scores of SBE and subjective stress and state anxiety. In conclusion, the current study brings experimental evidence of improving pain experience via residential greenspace exposure, while the related psychophysiological benefits require further investigation.

Green Exercise: Can Nature Video Benefit Isometric Exercise?

Green exercise is the combination of physical activity and nature exposure, which has been associated with positive effects on psychophysiological health. This study aimed to investigate the effects of nature video viewing on isometric exercise and find a useful practice for green exercise in urban living. In the current study, 18 male subjects were recruited in a randomized crossover trial and underwent a sequence of wall squat exercises. The whole experiment contained three periods of baseline (before exercise), exercise, and recovery (after exercise), and each period lasted for 2 min. A video of forest walking was played in the exercise and recovery periods as treatment, while a black screen was set as control. The Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale (RPE) and Feeling Scale (FS) were employed to measure perceived exertion and affective responses in the exercise period; heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) including the standard deviation of normal-to-normal RR intervals (SDNN), the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), and the standard deviations of the Poincaré plot (SD1), were recorded in the three periods. Heart rate recovery (HRR) in the recovery period was further calculated based on 30 s and 60 s time frames. Results demonstrated that during the exercise period nature video viewing was associated with better affective responses (median of 1.00 and an interquartile (IQR) of 2.00, p = 0.017), lower perceived exertion (median = 6.00, IQR = 2.00, p = 0.021), and lower HR (median = 89.60, IQR = 20.94, p = 0.01), but the differences in HRV indices between the experimental settings were not statistically significant. In the recovery period, significantly higher values of RMSSD (median = 34.88, IQR = 24.52, p = 0.004), SD1 (median = 24.75, IQR = 17.41, p = 0.003), and HR (median = 84.18, IQR = 16.58, p = 0.001) were observed in the treatment setting, whereas no statistically significant difference was found for HRR. In general, our findings support that nature video viewing may help reduce perceived exertion, increase exercise pleasure, buffer heart rate, and improve cardiac autonomic recovery for wall squat exercising, which implies the potential of nature-based stimuli in green exercise. However, due to the limited research sample, further study may need to include female participants and focus on various populations to confirm the effectiveness of using virtual and environments depicting nature at home or in public exercise places to promote positive exercise experience.

The Effects of Green and Urban Walking in Different Time Frames on Physio-Psychological Responses of Middle-Aged and Older People in Chengdu, China

Nighttime walking is becoming a popular exercise for many middle-aged and older people in Asian countries. However, the health benefits of nighttime walking in urban areas and green spaces are still unclear. This study evaluated the physiological and psychological responses of 48 middle-aged and older people who walked 1.6 km through a green space and an urban area during daytime and nighttime. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Profile of Mood States (POMS), Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), and Restorative Outcome Scale (ROS) were employed to measure the psychological responses, and pulse rate and blood pressure (SBP, DBP and MAP) were measured to evaluate the physiological responses. The results showed that the daytime green walking induced psychological improvements and lowered blood pressure (p < 0.05), while the daytime urban walking resulted in slight deterioration of all the measured parameters (p > 0.05). On the other hand, the nighttime green walking induced lowered blood pressure (p < 0.05), whilst the nighttime urban walking resulted in psychological improvements and lowered blood pressure (p < 0.05), and no significant difference was found in any measured parameter between the two nighttime walking groups. In conclusion, urban areas are noisy and irritating in the daytime, and not suitable for walking, but may become pleasurable and attractive at night. The psychological benefits of green walking may decrease at night, and nighttime walking in either an urban area or a green space may achieve similar health benefits. Therefore, we recommend that urban citizens start nighttime walking in a green space or an urban area to keep fit when the air is less polluted.