Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Comparative Study of the Restorative Effects of Forest and Urban Videos during Covid-19 Lockdown: Intrinsic and Benchmark Value

Federica Zabini
* ,
Lorenzo Albanese
,
Francesco Riccardo Becheri
,
Gioele Gavazzi
,
Fiorenza Giganti
,
Fabio Giovanelli
ORCID logo ,
Giorgio Gronchi
ORCID logo ,
Andrea Guazzini
,
Marco Laurino
ORCID logo ,
Qing Li
,
Tessa Marzi
,
Francesca Mastorci
,
Francesco Meneguzzo
* ORCID logo ,
Stefania Righi
,
Maria Pia Viggiano
Version 1 : Received: 29 August 2020 / Approved: 31 August 2020 / Online: 31 August 2020 (05:20:50 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Zabini, F.; Albanese, L.; Becheri, F.R.; Gavazzi, G.; Giganti, F.; Giovanelli, F.; Gronchi, G.; Guazzini, A.; Laurino, M.; Li, Q.; Marzi, T.; Mastorci, F.; Meneguzzo, F.; Righi, S.; Viggiano, M.P. Comparative Study of the Restorative Effects of Forest and Urban Videos during COVID-19 Lockdown: Intrinsic and Benchmark Values. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8011. Zabini, F.; Albanese, L.; Becheri, F.R.; Gavazzi, G.; Giganti, F.; Giovanelli, F.; Gronchi, G.; Guazzini, A.; Laurino, M.; Li, Q.; Marzi, T.; Mastorci, F.; Meneguzzo, F.; Righi, S.; Viggiano, M.P. Comparative Study of the Restorative Effects of Forest and Urban Videos during COVID-19 Lockdown: Intrinsic and Benchmark Values. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8011.

Abstract

The prolonged lockdown imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic prevented many people from direct contact with nature and greenspaces, raising alarms for a possible worsening of mental health. This study investigates the effectiveness of a simple and affordable remedy for improving psychological well-being, based on audio-visual stimuli brought by a short computer video showing forest environments, with an urban video as a control. Randomly selected participants were assigned the forest or urban video, to look at and listen early in the morning, and filled questionnaires. In particular, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) Form Y, collected in baseline condition and at the end of the study, and the Part II of the Sheehan Patient Rated Anxiety Scale (SPRAS), collected every day immediately before and after watching the video. The virtual exposure to forest environments showed effective to reduce perceived anxiety levels in in people forced by lockdown in limited spaces and environmental deprivation. Although significant, the effects were observed only in the short term, highlighting the limitation of the virtual experiences. The reported effects might also represent a benchmark to disentangle the determinants of health effects due to real forest experiences, for example, the inhalation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC).

Keywords

Anxiety; Audio-Visual stimulation; COVID-19; Environmental enrichment; Forest environments; Forest therapy; Lockdown; Mental health; Stress; Quarantine

Subject

Social Sciences, Cognitive Science

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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