Citation

Niedermeier M, Grafetstätter C, Kopp M, Huber D, Mayr M, Pichler C, Hartl A. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019; 16(2): e16020290.

Affiliation

Institute of Ecomedicine, Paracelsus Medical University, Strubergasse 21, 5020 Salzburg, Austria. Arnulf.Hartl@pmu.ac.at.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph16020290

PMID

30669640

Abstract

Green exercise might have positive effects on health and affective states. Little is known about the ideal characteristics of the natural environment, where exercise is conducted in. Thus, the primary aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of anthropogenic elements on acute stress-related physiological responses and affective states in green exercise. Using a crossover field study design, 52 healthy participants were exposed to two different mountain hiking conditions: An environment with less anthropogenic elements and an environment with more anthropogenic elements. Pre and post conditions, affective states and salivary cortisol concentration were measured. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to analyze if pre-post changes differed between the conditions. Pre-post changes in affective states and salivary cortisol concentration did not significantly differ, partial η² < 0.06. Positive affective states showed significantly higher values post compared to pre-condition, partial η² > 0.13. The present results indicate that anthropogenic elements have a minor role in the influence on affective states and salivary cortisol concentration during mountain hiking. It is concluded that a single bout of mountain hiking independent of anthropogenic elements in the environment is effective in influencing affective states positively.

Language: en

Keywords

allostatic load; anthropogenic elements; cortisol; green exercise; nature relatedness; stress