Contact to Nature Benefits Health: Mixed Effectiveness of Different Mechanisms

Mathias Hofmann, Christopher Young, Tina M. Binz, Markus R. Baumgartner and Nicole Bauer
Additional contact information
Mathias Hofmann: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Economics and Social Sciences, Social Sciences in Landscape Research, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Christopher Young: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Economics and Social Sciences, Social Sciences in Landscape Research, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Tina M. Binz: Center for Forensic Hair Analytics, University of Zürich, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland
Markus R. Baumgartner: Center for Forensic Hair Analytics, University of Zürich, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland
Nicole Bauer: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Economics and Social Sciences, Social Sciences in Landscape Research, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: How can urban nature contribute to the reduction of chronic stress? We twice measured the concentration of the “stress hormone” cortisol in the hair of 85 volunteer gardeners (six months apart), relating cortisol level change to (self-reported) characteristics of their recreational activities. Both time spent in nature and physical activity led to decreases in cortisol, while time spent being idle led to an increase. At high levels of present stressors, however, the relationship for time spent in nature and for idleness was reversed. Time spent with social interaction had no effect on cortisol levels. Our results indicate that physical activity is an effective means of mitigating the negative effects of chronic stress. The results regarding the time spent in nature and time spent being idle are less conclusive, suggesting the need for more research. We conclude that if chronic stress cannot be abolished by eradicating its sources, public health may take to measures to reduce it—providing urban nature being one effective possibility.

Keywords: chronic stress; hair cortisol; recreation; gardening; urban nature (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/1/31/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/1/31/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2017:i:1:p:31-:d:124322

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().