Effects of forest walking on physical and mental health in elderly populations: a systematic review
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Giovanni Piva
,
Lorenzo Caruso
,
Alberto Cruz Gómez
Abstract
There is a growing awareness that spending time in nature is associated with improvement of well-being; nevertheless, the prescription of forest bathing is still limited. The aim of this systematic review was to explore the physiological and psychological benefits of different forest therapies on healthy and pathological elderly populations (>60 years) to identify the most-effective type, duration, and frequency of these interventions. A search for literature was carried out in December 2021 using PubMed, EMBASE, ResearchGate, Google Scholar and Web of Science. Grey literature was searched as well. After removal of the duplicates, within the 214 articles identified, ten met the inclusion criteria. The methodological quality of the selected studies was rated. Forest walking, alone and in combination with other activities is the most effective intervention. The selected studies reported a positive impact on physical components, including reduction in blood pressure and heart rate and improvements in cardiopulmonary and neurochemical parameters. Favorable modifications have also been noted in the psychological field, with improvements in depression, stress levels and in quality of life perception. In conclusion, forest walking may play an important role in promoting physical and mental health in healthy and pathological elderly populations. However, the lack of high-quality studies limits the strength of the results, calling for more trials.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Ethical approval: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review.
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Supplementary Material
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/REVEH-2022-0093).
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Reviews
- Evolution of tobacco control in India: a narrative review of the legislative and regulatory approach
- Association of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) with lead and cadmium concentrations in biological samples of children and women: systematic review and meta-analysis
- Can acute high-altitude sickness be predicted in advance?
- Phthalate exposure and lung disease: the epidemiological evidences, plausible mechanism and advocacy of interventions
- The European Union prioritises economics over health in the rollout of radiofrequency technologies
- The effect of microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) in dust storm on human health
- Source, toxicity and carcinogenic health risk assessment of heavy metals
- Carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic human health risk assessments of heavy metals contamination in drinking water supplies in Iran: a systematic review
- A short overview of radioactivity measurement studies in Uzbekistan
- Lead in traditional and complementary medicine: a systematic review
- Effects of forest walking on physical and mental health in elderly populations: a systematic review
- The injustice of risk avoidance: the limitations of fish consumption restrictions as institutional controls for superfund sites
- Cardiovascular disease, mortality and exposure to particulate matter (PM): a systematic review and meta-analysis
- Factors affecting mental health of seafarers on board merchant ships: a systematic review
- Letter to the Editor
- Does electronic waste induce DNA damage in mammalian cells?
