Effects of Forest Therapy on Health Promotion among Middle-Aged Women: Focusing on Physiological Indicators

Bum-Jin Park, Chang-Seob Shin, Won-Sop Shin, Chung-Yeub Chung, Si-Hyung Lee, Dong-Jun Kim, Youn-Hee Kim and Chang-Eun Park
Additional contact information
Bum-Jin Park: Department of Environment and Forest Resources, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea
Chang-Seob Shin: Department of Forest Science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Chungbuk 28644, Korea
Won-Sop Shin: Department of Forest Science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Chungbuk 28644, Korea
Chung-Yeub Chung: Institute of Mental Health, Seoul 03156, Korea
Si-Hyung Lee: Healience Seonmaeul, Hongcheon, Gangwon 25104, Korea
Dong-Jun Kim: Department of Forest Science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Chungbuk 28644, Korea
Youn-Hee Kim: Center for Contemplative Science, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Korea
Chang-Eun Park: National Center for Forest Therapy, Gimcheon, Gyeongbuk 39695, Korea

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: Women experience more stress in middle age than in other life stages, and health in middle age is vital, because it influences the quality of life in old age. In this study, the effects of a forest therapy program on physiological changes in 53 middle-aged women (divided into two groups) who lived in the city were examined. One group participated in a three-day program in the forest, followed by three days in the city; the other group participated in a three-day program in the city, followed by three days in the forest. Forest experiments were conducted in a “healing forest,” and urban experiments were conducted near a university campus. Blood tests were performed to evaluate the physiological effects of forest therapy. Differences in serotonin levels and vitamin D levels were verified before and after the forest (experimental group) and urban (control group) programs through paired t -tests. Statistically significant increases in serotonin levels were noted for participants in the forest program; vitamin D levels also increased, but not by statistically significant values. The findings of this study verify that forest therapy programs promote health among middle-aged women, and may prevent disease and improve quality of life.

Keywords: forest therapy; middle-aged women; health promotion; serotonin; vitamin D (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4348/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4348/ (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:17:y:2020:i:12:p:4348-:d:372880

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 ().