A pragmatic controlled trial of forest bathing compared with compassionate mind training in the UK: impacts on self- reported wellbeing and heart rate variability
Authors
McEwan, KirstenGiles, David
Clarke, Fiona
Kotera, Yasu
Evans, Gary
Terebenina, Olga
Minou, Lina
Teeling, Claire
Basran, Jaskaran
Wood, Wendy
Weil, Dominic
Affiliation
University of DerbyLattice Coaching and Training, Chesterfield
University of Birmingham
The Forest Bathing Institute, London
Grow Outside CIC, Cambridge
Issue Date
2021-01-28
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Forest Bathing, where individuals use mindfulness to engage with nature, has been re-ported to increase heart rate variability and benefit wellbeing. To date, most Forest Bathing studies have been conducted in Asia. Accordingly, this paper reports the first pragmatic controlled trial of Forest Bathing in the United Kingdom, comparing Forest Bathing with a control comprising an es-tablished wellbeing intervention also known to increase heart rate variability called Compassion-ate Mind Training. Sixty-one university staff and students (50 females, 11 males) were allocated to (i) Forest Bathing, (ii) Compassionate Mind Training or (iii) Forest Bathing combined with Com-passionate Mind Training. Wellbeing and heart rate variability were measured at baseline, post-intervention and three-months follow-up. There were improvements in positive emotions, mood disturbance, rumination, nature connection and compassion and 57% of participants showed an increase in heart rate variability (RMSSD -parasympathetic activity). There were no significant differences between conditions, showing that Forest Bathing had an equivalence with an established wellbeing intervention. The findings will help healthcare providers and policy makers to understand the effects of Forest Bathing and implement it as a feasible social prescription to improve wellbeing. Future research needs to involve clinical populations and to assess the effects of Forest Bathing in a fully powered randomised controlled trial (RCT) .Citation
McEwan, K., Giles, D., Clarke, F.J., Kotera, Y., Evans, G., Terebenina, O., Minou, L., Teeling, C., Basran, J., Wood, W. and Weil, D., 2021. A Pragmatic Controlled Trial of Forest Bathing Compared with Compassionate Mind Training in the UK: Impacts on Self-Reported Wellbeing and Heart Rate Variability. Sustainability, 13(3).Publisher
MDPIJournal
SustainabilityDOI
10.3390/su13031380Additional Links
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1380Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
2071-1050ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3390/su13031380