Graduate School of Veterinary Science, Azabu University, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan.
Anim Sci J. 2010 Feb;81(1):129-34. doi: 10.1111/j.1740-0929.2009.00714.x.
The increased mental stress of daily life and aging of the population are serious matters in Japan. There are many studies regarding the effects of human-animal interactions on mental and physical human health, whereas there are few studies examining the effects of visiting zoos. To determine the effect of visiting zoos on human health and quality of life, two different zoos were visited by 70 participants in Experiment 1 and 163 participants in Experiment 2. In this study we administered the WHO QOL-26 questionnaire in Japanese to assess the psychological scales of participants, and blood pressures and pulse rates were measured to assess their physical scales. We also used pedometers to count the number of steps taken during zoo visits. Both zoo visits decreased blood pressure and participants demonstrated more than 6000 steps during each visit. The quality of life sub-scale scores were improved after zoo visits.
日常生活中的精神压力增加和人口老龄化是日本的严重问题。有许多关于人与动物互动对身心健康影响的研究，而很少有研究考察参观动物园的影响。为了确定参观动物园对人类健康和生活质量的影响，实验 1 中 70 名参与者和实验 2 中 163 名参与者分别参观了两个不同的动物园。在这项研究中，我们使用了世界卫生组织生活质量问卷 26 版（WHO QOL-26）以评估参与者的心理量表，测量了血压和脉搏率以评估他们的身体量表。我们还使用计步器来计算参观动物园期间的步数。两次动物园参观都降低了血压，参与者每次参观的步数都超过了 6000 步。参观动物园后，生活质量子量表的得分得到了提高。
