Forest bathing for stress reduction: a critical review.

Background Modern living, combined with the impacts of COVID-19 and an ever-changing geopolitical climate exacerbates stress in people's lives. Consequently, it is an urgent priority to find practical, evidence-based stress management strategies. Time spent in nature is known to significantly reduce...

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Publicado en:Australian Journal of Herbal & Naturopathic Medicine Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 56 - 73
Autores principales: Pavlovic, Gabrielle Angela, Connolly, Greg
Formato: research systematic review tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: National Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA) Jun2023
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jun2023
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      pub: National Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA)
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        10.33235/ajhnm.35.2.56-72
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        atl: Forest bathing for stress reduction: a critical review.
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        au:
          Pavlovic, Gabrielle Angela
          Connolly, Greg
        affil: Revitalising Health, Preston, VIC, Australia
      sug:
        subj:
          Natural Environment
          Stress Management
          Bathing and Baths
          Naturopathy
          Human
          Systematic Review
          PubMed
          Male
          Female
          Adult
          Middle Age
          Descriptive Statistics
          Patient Safety
          Health Promotion Methods
          Natural and Biologically Based Therapies
          Hydrocortisone
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Middle Aged: 45-64 years
          Male
          Female
      ab: Background Modern living, combined with the impacts of COVID-19 and an ever-changing geopolitical climate exacerbates stress in people's lives. Consequently, it is an urgent priority to find practical, evidence-based stress management strategies. Time spent in nature is known to significantly reduce stress, and immersion within forests (forest bathing) is known to benefit human health. Although the health effects of forest bathing have been studied, there is a need to expand the literature around how such interventions impact stress specifically. Aim To appraise recent literature in the fields of forest bathing and stress reduction to ascertain whether adults experience improved stress adaptation after participating in forest-based interventions. Methods A search of peer-reviewed literature was conducted through EBSCOhost, Scopus, PubMed and GoogleScholar databases from 27 February 2021 to 7 March 2021 to find studies investigating effects of forest bathing on human stress responses. Results Nine studies meeting inclusion criteria were selected and appraised based on study populations, sample sizes, study designs, outcome measures, intervention characteristics and safety considerations. Conclusions This review evaluates recent research investigating the effects of forest-based interventions on stress, which indicate forest bathing may have beneficial psychophysiological effects on stress. Drawing firm conclusions is difficult due to the heterogeneity of the research. Future research may benefit from more rigorous RCTs with active controls, and detailed reporting on characteristics of intervention locations so that seasonal and region-specific variables are considered. Overall critical analysis of studies analysed herein suggest that prescribing time in nature could be a beneficial recommendation for patients to manage stress.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        systematic review
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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