Li Hansen, Zhang Xing, Bi Shilin, Cao Yang, Zhang Guodong
Institute of Sports Science, College of Physical Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Department of Basketball and Volleyball, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Jul 20;9(7):918. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9070918.
Reducing the burden of pain via greenspace exposure is a rising research topic. However, insufficient evidence has been found in relation to the environmental effect itself. Residential greenspace, as a convenient but limited natural environment for urban dwellers, has benefits and services yet to be discovered. Therefore, the current study recruited 24 young adults to evaluate the effects of physical visit to, or image viewing of, residential greenspace on pain perception and related psychophysiological outcomes, via simulated pain. Pain threshold and tolerance were recorded via the level of pain stimuli, and pain intensity was evaluated using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The state scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S) and two adjective pairs were employed to measure the state anxiety and subjective stress, respectively. Meanwhile, heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and blood pressure (BP) were measured to investigate physiological responses. Besides, Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) was also employed to assess participants' preference regarding the experimental environments. The results revealed that visiting the greenspace significantly increased the pain threshold and tolerance, while no significant effect was observed for image viewing. On the other hand, no significant difference was observed in pain-related psychophysiological indices between the experimental settings, but significantly negative associations were found between the scores of SBE and subjective stress and state anxiety. In conclusion, the current study brings experimental evidence of improving pain experience via residential greenspace exposure, while the related psychophysiological benefits require further investigation.
通过接触绿色空间减轻疼痛负担是一个日益受到关注的研究课题。然而，关于环境效应本身的证据尚不充分。住宅绿地作为城市居民方便但有限的自然环境，其益处和服务还有待发现。因此，本研究招募了24名年轻人，通过模拟疼痛来评估实地参观或观看住宅绿地图像对疼痛感知及相关心理生理指标的影响。通过疼痛刺激水平记录疼痛阈值和耐受性，使用视觉模拟量表（VAS）评估疼痛强度。分别采用状态-特质焦虑量表（STAI-S）的状态量表和两组形容词对来测量状态焦虑和主观压力。同时，测量心率（HR）、心率变异性（HRV）和血压（BP）以研究生理反应。此外，还采用风景优美度评价（SBE）来评估参与者对实验环境的偏好。结果显示，参观绿地显著提高了疼痛阈值和耐受性，而观看图像则未观察到显著效果。另一方面，实验设置之间在疼痛相关的心理生理指标上未观察到显著差异，但SBE得分与主观压力和状态焦虑之间存在显著的负相关。总之，本研究为通过接触住宅绿地改善疼痛体验提供了实验证据，而相关的心理生理益处仍需进一步研究。
