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KMID : 1147820130020020108
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Journal of Naturopathy
2013 Volume.2 No. 2 p.108 ~ p.114
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Effects of Occupational and Social Stresses after Forest Therapy
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Lee Bo-Koo
Lee Hyung-Hwan
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Abstract
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In order to study the natural healing effects of forest phytoncide, questionnaires on stress (occupational and psychosocial) and anxiety (state and trait) were also conducted on the same 31 subjects in order to measure changes in their clinical physiology. Male subjects showed a significant fall in occupational stress levels by 2.8% after forest therapy, but no meaningful change was observed among females. For psychosocial stress, there were noticeable decrease in both genders - 8.4% in male and 11.3% in female subjects. Even when comparing the effects of forest therapy by gender, the results suggested males generally benefited more than females from forest therapy. Male subjects saw significant decline in both occupational and psychosocial stress, while female subjects only experienced a drop in psychosocial stress. The state anxiety test assessed the subjects’ current state of tension, concerns and worries. Although the results did not conclude to be statistically significant, forest therapy was still found to ease anxiety in both genders. On the other hand, the trait anxiety scale measured the subjects’ anxiety tendencies in everyday life mainly due to congenital reasons. Males and females showed decreases after the forest therapy by 3.2% and 1.9%, respectively. Both numbers can be viewed as statistically significant. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that forest therapy contributed to the human body by stabilizing the physical and mental state by reducing stress levels.
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KEYWORD
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phytoncide, forest therapy, immunity, stress, naturopathy
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