Trial reportThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2020
Effectiveness of prescribing physical activity in parks to improve health and wellbeing - the park prescription randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02615392 (Park Prescription Trial), which is not on this map. Cited by 36 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Park Prescription Trial
Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Factors influencing access to green health prescribing in primary care for older adults - a qualitative systematic review.BMC medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of green exercise on mental health in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of urban green exercise on mental health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- The Effectiveness of Interventions to Increase Participation and Physical Activities in Parks: A Systematic Review of the Literature.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- The Effect of Physical Activity Interventions Carried Out in Outdoor Natural Blue and Green Spaces on Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- What Activities in Forests Are Beneficial for Human Health? A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A comprehensive evaluation of the health benefits of forest therapy for cancer survivors.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2026Trial
- Actual and Virtual Parks Benefit Quality of Life and Physical Activity: A Cluster Trial.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2024Trial
- Activity in nature mediates a park prescription intervention's effects on physical activity, park use and quality of life: a mixed-methods process evaluation.BMC public health · 2021Trial
- Associations between park visitation and physical, mental and social health among older adults.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Association between residential greenness and risks of diabetic complications among individuals with type 2 diabetes and the roles of healthy lifestyle behaviors.Eco-Environment & Health · 2026Article
- Changes in activity spaces, life spaces, and exposures to physical activity-promoting environments among women with overweight or obesity.Health & place · 2025Article
- Green sanctuaries: residential green and garden space and the natural environment mitigate mental disorders risk of diabetic patients.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Space Prescription: Initiative to Improve Health and Well-being in Tokyo.Journal of atherosclerosis and thrombosis · 2025Review
- Time-Use Sequences: A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring How, When, and Where Spatiotemporal Patterns of Everyday Routines Can Strengthen Public Health Interventions.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Nature Prescriptions and Indigenous Peoples: A Qualitative Inquiry in the Northwest Territories, Canada.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Interactions with Nature, Good for the Mind and Body: A Narrative Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
- Factors influencing likelihood of participation in green social prescriptions in an international sample.Journal of healthy eating and active living · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrograms promoting population health through physical activity (PA) and exposure to nature are popular, but few have been evaluated in randomized-controlled trials (RCTs).
objectiveTo investigate the effectiveness of a park prescription intervention (PPI) for improving total moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), other PA related behaviors, quality of life (QoL) and cardio-metabolic health among adults.
methodsHealthy individuals aged 40 to 65 years were recruited through community health screenings and randomly assigned to 1) PPI: face-to-face Park Prescription + invitation to weekly exercise sessions in parks, or 2) control: standard PA materials. After the six-month intervention, participants completed accelerometer assessments, questionnaires on health behaviors and QoL, and health screenings. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare outcomes between groups, with secondary analysis adjusted for co-variates via multiple linear regression. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
resultsEighty participants were allocated to each group. Participants with mean age of 51.1 (Standard Deviation: 6.3) years were predominantly female (79%) and of Chinese ethnicity (81%). Participation in the group exercise started at 48% and declined to 24% by week 26. At six-months, 145 (91%) participants attended health screenings for outcome measure collection, and 126 (79%) provided valid accelerometer data. Time spent in MVPA favored the PPI group but this difference was not statistically significant (4.4 (- 43.8, 52.7) minutes/week; when removing 2 extreme outliers 26.8 (- 9.7, 63.4) minutes/week). Time spent in parks (147.5 (2.1, 292.9) minutes/month), PA in parks (192.5 (59.5, 325.5) minutes/month), and recreational PA (48.7 (1.4, 96.0) minutes/week) were significantly greater in the PPI group. PPI also significantly improved psychological QoL (4.0 (0.0, 8.0). DISCUSSION: PPI improved park use, PA in parks, recreational PA, and psychological QoL but not total MVPA. Future RCTs' are warranted to investigate PPI in different target populations and to provide further evidence for improvements in health outcomes.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02615392, 26 November 2015.
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Registered trials
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.