Citation

Corazon SS, Nyed PK, Sidenius U, Poulsen DV, Stigsdotter UK. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018; 15(1): e15010137.

Affiliation

Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. uks@ign.ku.dk.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph15010137

PMID

29342952

Abstract

Stress-related illnesses are a growing health problem in the Western world; which also has economic significance for society. As a consequence; there is a growing demand for effective treatments. The study investigates the long-term efficacy of the Nacadia® nature-based therapy (NNBT) by comparing it to the efficacy of a validated cognitive behavioral therapy, called STreSS. The study is designed as a randomized controlled trial in which 84 participants are randomly allocated between the treatments. Long-term efficacy is investigated through data extracts from the national database of Statistics Denmark on the sick leave and the health-care consumption. The results show that both the NNBT and the STreSS lead to a significant decrease in number of contacts with a general practitioner in the period from twelve months prior to treatment to twelve months after treatment; and, a significant decrease in long-term sick leave from the month prior to treatment to twelve months after treatment. The positive long-term effects provide validation for the NNBT as an efficient treatment of stress-related illnesses.

Language: en

Keywords

CBT; RCT; health care utilization; nature-based interventions; pre-post study; register data; stress-related illnesses; therapy garden