An Exploratory Estimation of the Willingness to Pay for and Perceptions of Nature-Based Therapy for Cardiovascular Diseases

Aisling Sealy Phelan (), Elena Pisani, Chiara Tessari and Laura Secco
Additional contact information
Aisling Sealy Phelan: Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Elena Pisani: Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Chiara Tessari: Cardiac Surgery Unit, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University Hospital of Padova, 35128 Padova, Italy
Laura Secco: Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (TESAF), University of Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 13, 1-26

Abstract: There is increasing evidence of the benefits of natural environments for human health. Interest is growing in nature-based therapy (NBT), organised initiatives that promote human–nature interactions with the aim of achieving positive health outcomes. Although the benefits of spending time in nature are now widely recognised, the public’s perspective of NBTs is still not well understood nor quantified. At the same time, chronic non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease are on the rise, increasing costs and pressure for public health services. Using a sample of 96 respondents in Italy, this exploratory study investigates the economic value and perceptions of an NBT for cardiovascular disease. We employed the contingent valuation method to estimate marginal willingness to pay (WTP) for a nature-based rehabilitation programme compared to a standard indoor clinic-based programme. Logistic regression was used to estimate median WTP and influencing factors. We investigated the preferences of patients for the features and potential benefits of nature-based rehabilitation. We show that patients with cardiovascular disease in Italy have a positive WTP between EUR 14.01 to EUR 42.69 per day (median value EUR 27.26). Our findings indicate that NBTs could offer a promising alternative to standard indoor programmes. We provide recommendations for designing NBTs based on the preferences of our sample, aiming to contribute to sustainable health and land management policies.

Keywords: environmental health economics; nature-based therapy; willingness to pay; contingent valuation; nature health effects; natural environments; sustainable public health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/13/5779/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/13/5779/ (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:17:y:2025:i:13:p:5779-:d:1685641

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 ().