Physiological and Mood Changes After Walking in Green Spaces. A Comparison of Environments.

NCT ID: NCT07114146

Last Updated: 2025-08-11

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

36 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-08-31

Study Completion Date

2025-09-30

Brief Summary

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Natural environments, and more specifically forest environments, have shown in the last decade a growing interest as a protection against the frenetic pace of life of a large part of the urban population in developed countries, where symptoms related to stress and anxiety are associated with an increasingly frequent state of sub-health.

The investigators propose to perform a randomized crossover study to analyze the effects of a walk in the forest on physiological and psychological markers related to autonomic nervous system activity in healthy adult. In addition, the investigators intend to observe whether the characteristics and perceptions of the forest environment could affect the results obtained in these markers using a scale created for this purpose.

Participants will be healthy adults with no history of serious physical or psychological illnesses, who will be exposed to three forest environments.

Physiological markers will be measured, including heart rate variability, which will be measured with a heart rate sensor that will monitor data throughout the exposure period, and heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which will be measured with an automated device before and after each exposure. Before and after the walk through each of the forest environments, mood will be measured using the POMS scale, and our scale will be used to measure the perceived environmental quality after exposure to each environment.

In addition to the walk through the three forest environments, a control environment on an indoor treadmill will be used as a comparator, where distance, slope and walking speed will be adjusted to replicate the intensity and physical demand of the three outdoor routes.

The four interventions will be organized to create three different exposure sequences. Each exposure sequence will be randomly assigned to a different group. In turn, each participant will be randomly assigned to one of the three groups, so that all participants will undergo all four interventions in a repeated measures design.

Our hypothesis supports the idea that exposure to forest environments causes changes in physiological parameters and mood associated with positive regulation for health and for the autonomic nervous system in healthy adults compared to a neutral non-forest environment. As a second hypothesis, environmental characteristics as well as the perceived quality of the forest environment would be related to the magnitude of such changes associated with autonomic nervous system regulation and mood in healthy adults.

Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Healthy Subjects (HS) Forest Therapy Autonomic Nervous System Activity Mood

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

CROSSOVER

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

DOUBLE

Caregivers Outcome Assessors
The persons in charge of data extraction and statistics will be masked. The persons in charge of the measurements will also be masked before the transfer of the subjects and after the return of the subjects to the place of departure on the days of exposure; they will not know which exposure each subject will perform on each day of intervention.

Study Groups

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EXPOSURE IN SEQUENCE OF A-B-C-D ENVIRONMENTS

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT A

Intervention Type OTHER

A 3 km solo hike at a leisurely walking pace on a path that is easy to walk and has very little elevation gain. Located in Pontevedra Province.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT B

Intervention Type OTHER

A 3 km solo hike at a leisurely pace on an easy walking trail with very little elevation gain. Located in the province of Pontevedra.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT C

Intervention Type OTHER

3 km solo hike at a leisurely pace on an easy trail with little elevation gain. Located in the province of Pontevedra.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT D

Intervention Type OTHER

Individual 3 km treadmill walk in a closed room facing a wall without pictures or windows at a leisurely walking pace with no gradient. This room will be located on the Pontevedra University Campus.

EXPOSURE IN SEQUENCE OF B-C-A-D ENVIRONMENTS

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT A

Intervention Type OTHER

A 3 km solo hike at a leisurely walking pace on a path that is easy to walk and has very little elevation gain. Located in Pontevedra Province.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT B

Intervention Type OTHER

A 3 km solo hike at a leisurely pace on an easy walking trail with very little elevation gain. Located in the province of Pontevedra.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT C

Intervention Type OTHER

3 km solo hike at a leisurely pace on an easy trail with little elevation gain. Located in the province of Pontevedra.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT D

Intervention Type OTHER

Individual 3 km treadmill walk in a closed room facing a wall without pictures or windows at a leisurely walking pace with no gradient. This room will be located on the Pontevedra University Campus.

EXPOSURE IN SEQUENCE OF C-A-B-D ENVIRONMENTS

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT A

Intervention Type OTHER

A 3 km solo hike at a leisurely walking pace on a path that is easy to walk and has very little elevation gain. Located in Pontevedra Province.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT B

Intervention Type OTHER

A 3 km solo hike at a leisurely pace on an easy walking trail with very little elevation gain. Located in the province of Pontevedra.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT C

Intervention Type OTHER

3 km solo hike at a leisurely pace on an easy trail with little elevation gain. Located in the province of Pontevedra.

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT D

Intervention Type OTHER

Individual 3 km treadmill walk in a closed room facing a wall without pictures or windows at a leisurely walking pace with no gradient. This room will be located on the Pontevedra University Campus.

Interventions

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WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT A

A 3 km solo hike at a leisurely walking pace on a path that is easy to walk and has very little elevation gain. Located in Pontevedra Province.

Intervention Type OTHER

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT B

A 3 km solo hike at a leisurely pace on an easy walking trail with very little elevation gain. Located in the province of Pontevedra.

Intervention Type OTHER

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT C

3 km solo hike at a leisurely pace on an easy trail with little elevation gain. Located in the province of Pontevedra.

Intervention Type OTHER

WALK THROUGH ENVIRONMENT D

Individual 3 km treadmill walk in a closed room facing a wall without pictures or windows at a leisurely walking pace with no gradient. This room will be located on the Pontevedra University Campus.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

\- Those who have the ability and physical strength to walk 3 km in a calm manner without presenting or consciously suffering any type of adverse symptom.

Exclusion Criteria

* Pregnancy
* History of severe physical or mental illness
* Drug addiction (including narcotic drugs and non-narcotics) habitual.
* High risk of fall
* Severe outdoor allergies
Minimum Eligible Age

50 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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University of Vigo

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Ana Gil Iglesias

Principal investigator

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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Universidad de Vigo. Campus Pontevedra

Pontevedra, Pontevedra, Spain

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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Spain

Central Contacts

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Ana Gil Iglesias

Role: CONTACT

+34 649543500

Eva María Lantarón Caeiro

Role: CONTACT

Facility Contacts

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Eva María Lantarón Vicerrectora Facultad de Pontevedra, PhD

Role: primary

+34 986 801764

Ana Gil Iglesias, PhD student

Role: backup

Other Identifiers

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ETICA-ULE-087-2025

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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