Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26379564›Full record

ReviewFrontiers in psychology2015

How might contact with nature promote human health? Promising mechanisms and a possible central pathway.

Ming Kuo

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 216 papers, 14 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
216citing papers in PubMed, 14 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

216 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Community Forests and Public Health: A Research Agenda.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025
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  7. Nature Exposure and Its Effects on Immune System Functioning: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
    Pooled it
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  9. The Impact of Green Space on Violent Crime in Urban Environments: An Evidence Synthesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019
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  11. School Green Space and Its Impact on Academic Performance: A Systematic Literature Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019
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  13. Health and well-being benefits of spending time in forests: systematic review.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2017
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156 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Ming KuoLandscape and Human Health Laboratory, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

How might contact with nature promote human health? Myriad studies have linked the two; at this time the task of identifying the mechanisms underlying this link is paramount. This article offers: (1) a compilation of plausible pathways between nature and health; (2) criteria for identifying a possible central pathway; and (3) one promising candidate for a central pathway. The 21 pathways identified here include environmental factors, physiological and psychological states, and behaviors or conditions, each of which has been empirically tied to nature and has implications for specific physical and mental health outcomes. While each is likely to contribute to nature's impacts on health to some degree and under some circumstances, this paper explores the possibility of a central pathway by proposing criteria for identifying such a pathway and illustrating their use. A particular pathway is more likely to be central if it can account for the size of nature's impacts on health, account for nature's specific health outcomes, and subsume other pathways. By these criteria, enhanced immune functioning emerges as one promising candidate for a central pathway between nature and health. There may be others.

Indexed as

greenspaceimmuneliterature reviewmechanismmental healthnatural environment

Identifiers

PMID26379564
PMCPMC4548093

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.