Forest Therapy as an Alternative and Sustainable Rehabilitation Practice: A Patient Group Attitude Investigation

Ivana Bassi, Vanessa Deotto (), Laura Pagani and Luca Iseppi
Additional contact information
Ivana Bassi: Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Vanessa Deotto: Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Laura Pagani: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Luca Iseppi: Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: The objective of this research is to investigate the awareness and opinions concerning forest therapy within a public health institution, specifically as a green prescription for patients with stable chronic disease. Through qualitative preliminary analysis, this study compared the responses of a group to gather physical activity and wood frequentation insights, as well as forest therapy patients’ attitudes. The results underline a general predisposition among respondents to engage in moderate physical activity and visit natural environments for relaxation purposes. Emerging parallelly is how forest therapy is largely an unknown practice, although it draws considerable interest and a general predisposition to participate. This research outlines the ideal conditions that emerge for participating in forest therapy sessions, including the availability to pay, pointing toward environmentally and socio-economically sustainable reflections. Further studies should extend this preliminary investigation using appropriate statistical methodologies on larger samples, involving different regions and medical conditions.

Keywords: forest therapy; public health; green prescriptions; local development; attitude analysis; sustainable care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/18/8111/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/18/8111/ (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:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:18:p:8111-:d:1479678

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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