The psychological and physical impacts of spending time in forests: a case study of two forests in Ireland.

Abstract

The overall aim of this study was to investigate the psychological and physical health/wellbeing effects of spending time in forests, and the role that the species composition of the forests plays in these effects. The effects were assessed by a simple questionnaire survey to 179 visitors to two adjacent forests; a conifer plantation forest and a broadleaf plantation forest. The immediate psychological effects from spending time in forests were also assessed by a mood test, and the longer-term psychological and physical health impacts of forest use were explored by comparing the results of the survey of forest visitors with that of a national survey. The results indicated that the main psychological well-being benefits experienced by forest users were “mental relaxation” and “enjoyment and fun”. Significant improvements in mood immediately after a walk in the forest were exhibited by the respondents, but the species composition of the forests was not shown to influence the improvements. It was also revealed that forest visitors engaged in greater levels of physical activity than the general population, but there was no correlation found between forest users’ physical activity level and frequency of forest use. It was recommended that further research should aim to make use of large-scale surveys of a random sample of the population including visitors and non-visitors to forests.