An Investigation of Nature Contact and Health Across Diverse Populations

Abstract

Over the last several decades, extensive research has been done and has provided ample evidence that human contact with nature has numerous positive effects on health. This dissertation has three aims:

Identify the existing body of knowledge on nature prescriptions and produce a collection of nature prescription articles for ease of access for future research efforts. The method chosen was a scoping review of three electronic databases and Google. The use of the PRISMA-ScR checklist guided the analysis.

Assess the relationship between remote workers and indirect, indoor, and outdoor nature. An internet-based survey was distributed using convenience sampling. Frequencies, percentages, bivariate chi-squared, and logistical regression were utilized to investigate each hypotheses response variable, presence of adverse emotions, and overall job satisfaction with nature contact against demographics, work freedom, and musculoskeletal discomfort.

Identify relationships between a Texas campus’s green spaces and students’ knowledge of their health benefits and their perception of their emotional, mental, physical, and social health compared to the campus’s built environments. A participatory photovoice method guided this analysis.

For the first aim, only 12 studies were found to be nature prescriptions prescribed by a physician or healthcare professional. Almost all 12 articles were based on a different type of nature prescription. Prescriptions ranged from Nature-Based Therapy (NBT) to outdoor physical activity, park outings, surfing lessons, and more, resulting in seven target health outcome themes.

For the second aim, 631 adults met all inclusion criteria. It was found that only the indirect nature contact score resulted in a significant predictor for the energetic emotion response variable.

For the third and final aim, 122 students participated in the photovoice and answered the corresponding questionnaire. It was observed that most students felt more positive and perceived more health benefits outdoors than indoors. A key finding from the in-class discussion was that regardless of the difference in instructions between the two sections, the overall findings showed participants favored taking and analyzing photographs with more nature, or those taken outdoors, than those with less nature or indoors.