Quality of Life and Mental Health Benefits of Public Participation in Forest Conservation Activities in Urban Areas

Dawou Joung, Bum-Jin Park () and Shinkwang Kang ()
Additional contact information
Dawou Joung: Institute of Agricultural Science, Chungnam National University, Deajeon 34134, Korea
Bum-Jin Park: Department of Environment and Forest Resources, Chungnam National University, Deajeon 34134, Korea
Shinkwang Kang: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Chungnam National University Hospital, School of Medicine, Chungnam National University, Deajeon 35015, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-14

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of forest conservation activities on the physical and psychological wellbeing of participants. The experiment was conducted in a forest near an urban area and involved 61 participants (average age: 22.5 ± 1.8). The participants selected one of three activities (pruning, stacking cut branches, and removing vines) in the forest conservation program. The effects of these activities on the musculoskeletal system were assessed using the Ovako Working Posture Assessment System (OWAS); the physical intensity of the activities was evaluated using heart rate data. The psychological evaluation measurement indexes used the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale, World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instrument, and the Perceived Restorativeness Scale. As a result of the OWAS assessment, forest conservation activities were found to be action categories 1 and 2, which were less burdensome to the musculoskeletal system. All forestry activities were found to be light levels of physical intensity. Psychological evaluation of the participants revealed that positive emotions such as self-esteem, quality of life, and perceived restorativeness increased significantly, whereas negative emotions decreased significantly. This forest conservation program, that involved low-intensity activities which were less burdensome to the musculoskeletal system, had positive physical and psychological effects on the local residents who participated.

Keywords: green gym; musculoskeletal system; physical activity; psychological effects; urban forest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9768/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9768/ (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:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9768-:d:883294

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 ().