Effects of Public Green Space on Acute Psychophysiological Stress Response: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence
By Lærke Mygind, Eva Kjeldsted, R. Hartmeyer, E. Mygind, Matt P. Stevenson, D. Quintana, P. Bentsen. Environment and Behavior, 2019
109 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Contact with nature is widely considered to ameliorate psychological stress, but the empirical support for a causal link is limited. We conducted a systematic review to synthesize and critically assess the evidence. Six electronic databases were searched. Twenty-six studies evaluated the difference between the effect of natural environments and that of a suitable control on the acute psychophysiological stress response. Eighteen studies were rated as being of moderate quality, four studies of low quality, and four studies of high quality. Meta-analyses indicated that seated relaxation (g = .5, p = .06) and walking (g = .3, p = .02) in natural environments enhanced heart rate variability more than the same activities in control conditions. Cortisol concentration measures were inconsistent. While intuitively and theoretically sound, the empirical support for acute stress-reducing effects of immersion in natural environments is tentative due to small sample sizes and methodological weaknesses in the studies. We provide guidelines for future research.
Subfields: Education, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/288b50d99ecd8543b10bb1ecb0068d7d60ff3c9e
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In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Citations in the corpus
- The Role of Methodological Choices in the Effects of Experimental Exposure to Simulated Natural Landscapes on Human Health and Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review (2020, background): “Relevant papers that could have provided further information about the use of simulations of natural landscapes were published when the present review was undergoing peer review (e.g., Appel et al., 2020; Browning et al., 2020; Chirico & Gaggioli, 2019; Gao et al., 2019; Hedblom et al., 2019; Litles”