Muro Anna, Mateo Corel, Parrado Eva, Subirana-Malaret Montse, Moya Montserrat, Garriga Adrià, Canals Josep, Chamarro Andrés, Sanz Antoni
Departament of Basic, Developmental and Health Psychology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Office B5-111, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.
Serra Húnter Programme, Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
Eur J For Res. 2023;142(2):415-426. doi: 10.1007/s10342-023-01531-6. Epub 2023 Feb 3.
Forest bathing (FB) has evidenced positive effects on individuals' mental health and well-being, but its benefits have mainly been studied in Asian biomes. The present study aimed to evaluate whether its benefits are also generalisable to other forests and biomes of the world, such as the Mediterranean. Eighty-six healthy adults of the general population were assessed before and after a FB near Barcelona (Spain) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A control-hiking group of participants was also analysed to contrast the FB effects on anxiety, affect, mood states and mindfulness. Results show that the guided practice of FB in Mediterranean-Catalan forests increases mindfulness states and positive affect and reduces anxiety and negative affect, with effect sizes being large to very large. Hiking also induced significant changes in all variables tested, but FB showed higher effect sizes. An exploratory analysis also revealed a different profile of the FB participants compared to the hiking practitioners, being highly educated women living in urban areas and with lower basal levels of psychological well-being. Accordingly, it is concluded that both Mediterranean FB and hiking (to a lesser degree) might be cost-effective strategies to promote and restore psychological well-being after the COVID-19 pandemic and to promote sustainable tourism in Mediterranean biomes of the European forested and protected areas.
森林浴（FB）已被证明对个体的心理健康和幸福感有积极影响，但其益处主要是在亚洲生物群落中进行研究的。本研究旨在评估其益处是否也适用于世界其他森林和生物群落，如地中海地区。在新冠疫情期间，对西班牙巴塞罗那附近进行森林浴前后的86名健康普通成年人进行了评估。还分析了一组对照徒步旅行参与者，以对比森林浴对焦虑、情感、情绪状态和正念的影响。结果表明，在地中海加泰罗尼亚森林中进行有指导的森林浴练习可提高正念状态和积极情感，并减少焦虑和消极情感，效应量为大到非常大。徒步旅行也使所有测试变量发生了显著变化，但森林浴的效应量更高。一项探索性分析还揭示，与徒步旅行者相比，森林浴参与者具有不同的特征，他们是居住在城市地区、受过高等教育且基础心理健康水平较低的女性。因此，得出的结论是，地中海森林浴和徒步旅行（程度较轻）都可能是具有成本效益的策略，有助于在新冠疫情后促进和恢复心理健康，并推动欧洲森林保护区地中海生物群落的可持续旅游。
