ReviewInternational journal of environmental research and public health2020
Health Benefits Derived from Forest: A Review.
Review in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effect of Forest Therapy on Depression and Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- The Psychological and Physical Effects of Forests on Human Health: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Long-Term Effects of Mountain Hiking vs. Forest Therapy on Physical and Mental Health of Couples: A Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Potential preventive effects of forest bathing/Shinrin-yoku on depressive symptoms: a narrative review of mechanistic evidence.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2026Review
- Forest Therapy Trails: Development and Application of an Assessment Protocol.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- A controlled study of short term tea forest environmental health activities to improve the physical and mental health of middle and older adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Interplay among Anxiety, Digital Environmental Exposure, and Cognitive Control: Implications of Natural Settings.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Physiological and psychological recovery in two pure forests: interaction between perception methods and perception durations.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Mechanism of the Huangguoshu waterfall forest environment's promotive effect on human health in Guizhou, China.Annals of translational medicine · 2022Article
- Sociodemographic Determinants of Poles' Attitudes towards the Forest during the COVID-19 Pandemic.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Pleistocene Hypothesis - Moving Savanna Perceptual Preference Hypothesis Beyond Savanna.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- The Relationship between the Restorative Perception of the Environment and the Physiological and Psychological Effects of Different Types of Forests on University Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The Development of a Health Promotion Program for Unmarried Mothers Living in Residential Facilities Using Urban Forests: An Intervention Mapping Approach Based on the Transtheoretical Model.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In this paper the scientific literature on the association between forests, stress relief and relaxation is reviewed with the purpose to understand common patterns of research, the main techniques used for analysis, findings relevant to forest-therapy-oriented management, and knowledge gaps. The database of studies was collected with a keyword search on the Web, which returned a set of 32 studies that were included in the analysis. The main findings and patterns were identified with a text mining analysis of the abstract to search for keyword patterns across studies. The analysis indicates that most studies compared rest and relaxation performances across urban and forest environments and used a combination of self-reported measure of stress or rest collected with validate scales, e.g., the Profile of Mood of States (POMS) and the Restoration Outcome Scale (ROS), and a minority-only set of these two groups of indicators. Results of this review indicate that primary studies identified a positive association between forest exposure and mental well-being, in particular when compared to urban environments, thus suggesting that forest are effective in lowering stress levels. This study found that, to date, the characteristics of forests and characteristics of the visit are little investigated in the literature. For this reason, more research with a focus on forest variables such as tree species composition, tree density and other variables affecting forest landscape should be further investigated to inform forest management. Similarly, the characteristics of the visits (e.g., length of visit and frequency) should be further explored to provide robust forest therapy guidelines.
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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.