• 농업과학연구
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• 제49권4호
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• pp.1035-1045
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to provide information on a forest healing environment using the analysis of nature volatile organic compounds (NVOCs) and thermal comfort in Chungnam National University Experimental Forest, with the aim of using the Experimental Forest as a healing environment for health promotion. We analyzed NVOCs and thermal comfort of Chungnam National University Experimental Forest measured on September 12^th, 2021. As a result of the NVOC analysis, a total of seven substances were detected, mainly including alpha pinene and beta pinene. The detection amount for each time period was highest at the time of sunset. The thermal comfort was analyzed by time-dependent changes and changes according to clothing and exercise amount. The results showed that the predicted mean vote of the experimental forest is within the range of 'slightly cool' and 'slightly warm' sensation, and thus a comfortable thermal environment could be controlled by the amount of clothing and activity. Based on the analysis, this study provides information on the healing environment of the experimental forest at Chungnam National University. It also indicates that the forest can be used as a health promotion and healing environment with thermal comfort by composing a physical activity program of appropriate intensity for each time period.

• 인간식물환경학회지
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.363-375
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• 2020

Background and objective: Recreation or activities in forest are regarded as therapy. Many forest therapy programs have been developed and assessed in the domestic. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of the forest therapy program on academic and job-seeking stress in college students. Methods: Thirty five subjects were selected as the experimental group and 25 as the control group, and 29 subjects in the experimental group and 11 in the control group participated in the follow-up test to verify the persistence of stress reduction effects. The forest therapy program was carried out once a week for 2 hours each from September 4 to December 4, 2018, adding up to total eight sessions. Results: The experimental group showed statistically significant reduction in both academic stress and job-seeking stress, whereas the control group did not. For the persistence of the forest therapy program, the experimental group did not show a statistically significant difference between the posttest and the follow-up test, and thus the stress reduction effect was maintained. Conclusion: This study proved the reduction of academic and job-seeking stress in forest therapy programs and the persistence of the stress reduction effect of the forest therapy program. The result is consistent with the Stress Recovery Theory (SRT) that shows the stress reduction effect of nature. In addition, it has significance in that it has verified that the program using the forest on campus can reduce stress of most college students.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• 제36권4호
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• pp.318-325
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• 2020

This study was carried out to find the effects of aromatherapy using natural fragrance on reducing stress and improving job satisfaction of transportation workers in the taxi industry. A total of 120 workers were divided into the experimental group and the control group according to the inhalation of the fragrance and tested for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, the difference of emotional change, stress analysis, and evaluation of job satisfaction according to aromatherapy were compared between the two groups. The result showed that the experimental group had a higher interest in scent products than the control group and that they wanted to encounter a lot of real scents, indicating that aromatherapy caused positive interest in general scent likability. In addition, the experimental group said that the inhalation of fragrance would refresh the feeling of the passengers in the vehicle and smoothly communicate with the passengers. Especially, it showed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of tension relief, pleasure and good mood by inhalation of fragrance, indicating the positive effect on job satisfaction.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.225-234
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• 2023

This study verified the effect of a combined forest/thermal therapy (FT/TT) program on participants with depressive symptoms and smoking or alcohol dependence. The participants included 20 people in the experimental group and 18 people in the control group. The experimental group participated in the FT/TT program for 2 nights and 3 days at the National Center for Forest Healing, in Hoengseong (National Hoengseong Supchewon), and a charcoal kiln operated by the Gangwon Charcoal Farming Association. The control group carried out their daily life for the same period. Psychological, physiological, and biochemical tests were conducted to determine the effect of the program. The results showed that there were significant improvements in stress, anxiety, depression, sleep quality, sleep satisfaction, and IL-6 levels. However, no significant difference was found in the cortisol, serotonin and melatonin levels between the experimental and control groups. Thus, the FT/TT therapy had psychological and biochemical effects on individuals with depression and nicotine or alcohol dependency. Further studies should be conducted to verify the effect of forest healing in various conditions.

• 인간식물환경학회지
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• 제22권6호
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• pp.691-698
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• 2019

This study is to examine the effect of improving the forest therapy program for adolescents using forest healing resources (focused on improving index of greenness for adolescents). The participants were 30 students from in the control group that participated in the 2018 program, and 51 students in experimental group that participated in the improved program in 2019. The questionnaire, developed by Korea Forest Welfare Institute, was comprised of items on general matters, index of greenness, restorative environment, positive emotion, negative emotion, facial expression and psychological assessment. The control group had 30 and the experimental group had 49 valid copies of the questionnaires. As a result of the paired sample t-test for each group, the control group showed a significant increase in all categories except restorative environment. In the experimental group, all categories significantly improved to a higher level (p <.01). An independent sample t-test (one-tailed test) was performed to test the effect of the forest therapy program with improved index of greenness. As a result, the index of greenness increased by 0.73 points(t=2.555, p <.01) and restorative environment by 1.01 points (t=2.567, p <.01), showing statistical significance. Negative emotion increased by 0.04 points (t=0.183, p >.05), which was not significant. On the other hand, positive emotion decreased by 0.42 points (t=-1.918, p <.05), facial expression by 0.57 points (t=-1.775, p <.05), and psychological assessment by 0.29 points (t=-0.981, p >.05), showing significance in positive emotion and facial expression. However, all the decreased items showed significant improvements between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group.

• 인간식물환경학회지
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• 제22권5호
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• pp.525-539
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• 2019

Much research has been conducted on user behavior by taking surveys and interviews to plan the green space effectively. However, there is a limitation in understanding detailed user characteristics such as personalities and values. This study applied the Persona-based Scenario Method (PSM) to Hongneung Experimental Forest to understand the detailed needs and behaviors of the users in the forest recreation area. The PSM is a user experience modeling technique, which tries to understand the users by describing the type of users as real people. This study 1) extracts the factors of visitor recreation activities in Hongneung Experimental Forest based on the results of the survey, 2) develops user personas based on the results of survey and comes up with activity factors, and 3) designs user scenarios. As a result of applying the PSM, 64 factors of visitor activities were derived from the observation survey in 14 sites of Hongneung Experimental Forest and 25 key factors of visitor activities were chosen through observer's brainstorming. Second, three types of personas were developed considering the key factors and the results of user characteristics with quantitative and qualitative analysis. Lastly, context scenarios were designed by applying the key factors of visitor recreation activities to the persona model. We identified the design problems of the space and design requirements through the scenarios. This study has significance in that it takes an approach from the user perspective and was applied to the forest recreation area, which was mainly used in product design. The developed personas could be used for deriving design elements and setting the direction for planning considering detailed needs, behaviors and characteristics of users.

• 한국환경과학회지
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.51-59
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• 2022

This study investigated the effects of participation in a forest therapy program on ego-resiliency and interpersonal relationships to strengthen the independent capabilities of children requiring protection. The participants were divided into two groups: the experimental group (n=87; age, 16.40±1.90 years) and control group (n=90; age, 16.97±1.39 years). The study was conducted from July to August 2020. The experimental group participated in a forest therapy program operated by the National Center for Forest Therapy, Yeongju, for 2 nights and 3 days, whereas the control group lived routine life. The participants' ego-resiliency and interpersonal relationships were tested at the beginning and end of the forest therapy program. In the experimental group, ego-resiliency was improved and interpersonal relationships were significantly altered. Therefore, forest therapy programs may serve as effective interventions that can positively affect the social adaptation and growth of protected children into healthy adults.

• 인간식물환경학회지
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.107-117
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• 2021

Background and objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a forest healing program in terms of depression, neuropsychological and physiological benefits for the elderly. Methods: For this purpose, we developed a forest therapy program for the elderly who are vulnerable to dementia and conducted a total of 11 sessions of forest therapy activities in a forest once a week. We measured the changes in depression, resting-state Electroencephalography(EEG) and heart rate variability (HRV) before and after the program. There were 60 subjects aged over 65 yesrs old. 30 subjects participated in the forest therapy program, and the other were in the control group. The Geriatric Depression Scale was used to measure the level of depression, neuroNicle FX2 (Laxtha, Korea) was used to measure the resting-state EEG, and photoplethymogram (ubpulse T1, Laxtha, Korea) was used to measure the HRV. Results: The results showed that the depression index of the experimental group improved with statistical significance after the program (experiment group = 3.267 decrease of the mean). In the EEG measurement, the alpha-peak frequency at rest (experimental group = 0.227 Hz increase of the mean) was improved (mean increase = 0.23 in the experimental group, p < .05). The high frequency of HRV, which represents the parasympathetic nerve activity of the body's autonomous response, was also significantly improved (mean increase = 0.396 in the experimental group, p < .05). Conclusion: The results suggest that the forest therapy program can reduce the cognitive, psychological and physical risk factors of dementia for the elderly at risk of cognitive decline. Therefore, forest therapy activities may be suitable for the prevention of dementia in the elderly.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.227-234
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• 2022

Purpose: Smoking is a way of coping with anxiety and stress. This study aimed to identify the effects of forest-thermal combined therapy on anxiety and depression in smokers who desire to quit smoking. Methods: Thirty participants were included in the study, 15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group. Those in the experimental group participated in a three-day forest-thermal combined therapy program. The program includes forest walks, meditation and thermal therapy in the charcoal kiln. Results: Before and after the program, physiological indicators such as cortisol, heart rate variability, and serotonin anxiety level using the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI), and stress level using the psychosocial well-being index (PWI) were measured in both groups. The differences in STAI (p=.012) and PWI (p=.006) scores between the experimental and control groups were statistically significant. However, cortisol, heart rate variability, and serotonin were not significantly different between the two groups after the program. Conclusion: These results show that forest-thermal combination therapy effectively reduces anxiety and stress in smokers. It suggests that forest-thermal therapy can potentially increase smoking cessation rates.

• 한국자연치유학회지
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.33-41
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• 2021

목적: 숲속의 산림욕은 인체의 스트레스 개선에 효과가 있는지를 연구하였다. 제주 삼다수 숲길을 2시간 동안 걸어서 산림욕을 한 후에 맥박과 스트레스 지수의 변화, 자율신경의 변화를 조사하는 것이었다. 방법: 연구는 산림욕 전후에 심장박동 변이와 설문을 통한 조사를 하였다. 결과: 산림욕 후 실험군의 평균 맥박은 유의하게 증가하였다. 스트레스 지수는 실험군에서는 사후에 유의하게 감소하였다. 누적 스트레스, 교감신경 활성(LF), 부교감신경 활성도(HF) 변화 및 LF/HF 비율은 실험군에서는 사후의 측정치의 차이는 있으나, 통계적으로 유의성이 없었다. 설문을 통한 직무 스트레스 평균 지수와 상태 특성 불안 지수의 조사에서는 사후에 유의하게 감소하였다(p<.001). 결론: 삼다수 산림욕이 맥박을 증진하고 스트레스를 감소하는 효과가 입증되어 산림욕이 건강증진에 효과적이라 평가한다.