• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.110 no.1
• /
• pp.82-90
• /
• 2021

In this study, the validity of the forest therapy process, in which forest activities using forest therapy factors lead to immunity promotion and health promotion, was analyzed theoretically and qualitatively to refine and systemize the forest therapy concept. Research and analysis data were collected from the websites of institutions related to forest therapy; 33 theses and 33 original research articles from 2000 to March 2020 were searched for forest therapy key words, as well as the prize winning work of the 2016 forest therapy experience essay. A word cloud was generated by frequency of nouns and adjectives and from the key words in the web pages, theses, articles, and the forest therapy experience essay. Through interpretation of word frequency, the systemic flow of forest therapy was defined. The results suggest that the source of forest therapy's power was a positive experience of the forest and an improved attitude toward nature as well as forest therapeutic factors. The therapeutic effect is maximized through the forest healing program, leading to physical and mental resilience and resistance; consequently, health and immunity are promoted. From this study, forest therapy is proposed as "a health promotion activity for the psychological, physical, and spiritual resilience of the subjects through various environmental factors of the forest, positive experiences, and attitudes toward the forest."

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.395-410
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate 199 subfertile women's interest in and needs for forest therapy programs according to their demographic characteristics in a subfertile clinic in Seoul to provide basic data. The results of this study were summarized as follows. First, the perception and experience of subfertile women about forest therapy were all low, but their intention to participate was generally positive. Second, the type of forest therapy preferred by subfertile women was a half-day small group that they can participate with their spouse during weekends. Third, subfertile women expected phytoncide (35.8%) and a high level of oxygen (29.9%) from forest therapy programs. Fourth, subfertile women expected physical and mental health such as improved blood circulation and immunity, and meditation opportunity from forest therapy. Fifth, subfertile women expected from forest therapists understanding and sympathy (62.2%). This study conducted a survey on 199 subfertile women only. Through follow-up studies that involve more subfertile subjects and a broader region, it will be possible to develop more effective forest therapy programs for promoting the physical and mental health of subfertile subjects.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.693-705
• /
• 2021

Background and objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of forest therapy programs on reducing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and improving mood states in fire officers. Methods: To determine PTSD, depression, and mood states before and after the forest therapy program, the survey results of 185 fire officers were analyzed. Frequency analysis was conducted to identify the demographic characteristics of the participants, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test to analyze the differences among group. Results: As a result of a comparative analysis of PTSD before and after the program, there was a significant decrease in PTSD from 10.65 ± 12.00 to 5.64 ± 8.29 after the program. Depression also showed a statistically significant difference from 3.21 ± 4.00 to 2.21 ± 3.47 after the program. As a result of comparatively analyzing mood states before and after the program, there was an increase in positive factors and a decrease in negative factors. Total mood disturbance (TMD) also showed a statistically significant decrease from 5.78 ± 17.37 to -7.38 ± 10.35 after the program. Conclusion: This study has significance in verifying that forest therapy programs can bring psychological changes to fire officers, and these results can be used as a basis for stress management and relief of fire officers.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.505-513
• /
• 2019

As the number of foreign workers increases in Korea, people's interest in their adaptation to this society has also increased. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a forest-healing program on foreign workers' cultural adaptation stress and psychological wellbeing. The experiment was conducted in a recreation forest located in Hongcheon-gun, Gangwon-do. The subjects who participated in this study included 40 foreign workers (16 males, 24 females). The experiment was conducted for three days and two nights from June 26 to 28, 2019. The forest healing program was composed of activities that can enhance immunity and restore physical and mental health by utilizing various healing environmental factors such as landscapes, sunlight, anion and oxygen in forest. The independent sample t-test was conducted to examine changes in cultural adaptation stress and psychological well-being before and after the program. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 program. As a result, cultural adaptation stress was statistically significantly reduced in sub-factors including discrimination experience, language conflict and legal status. Psychological wellbeing improved in all the surveyed sub-factors such as self-confidence, ego, immersion, and joy. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data for reducing the stress foreign workers experience from cultural adaptation and restoring their psychological wellbeing in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.22 no.11
• /
• pp.1519-1527
• /
• 2013

We have researched the image of different forest species by asking those who use these forests how they feel when enjoying them for their various purposes. We surveyed five different forest areas, these were a pine forest a korean pine forest a cypress forest a broad leafed forest and a mixed forest. We asked 806 people how these forests made them feel and what they thought was the image of these forests. We offered them a choice of 18 pairs of adjectives to describe how they felt. We used the SD Scale and discovered 4 different factors. A feeling of comfort and freshness and a feeling of order and space. There was also a feeling of intimacy with nature. Each forest gave out its own feeling and image. comfort and freshness was felt by those in the pine forest, the korean pine forest, the broad leafed forest and the mixed forest. A Feeling of order and space was felt in the korean pine forest. Intimacy was felt in the pine forest, broad leafed forest and the mixed forest.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.301-309
• /
• 2021

Background and objective: The purpose of this study is to analyze the case of healing experience for lifestyle and environmental diseases through life and activities in the forest from the perspecitive of critical realism, and how the causal power and mechanism of the healing experience relate to forest healing factors and programs. Methods: 93 video data of people who started living in the forest for disease treatment were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis method from the perspective of critical realism. Categories for analysis include general categories (age, duration, occupation, disease name), forest therapy categories (climate therapy, plant therapy, water therapy, diet therapy, kinesiotherapy, psychotherapy), and other categories (ecology, learning and management, life tools), etc., and the unit of analysis is the context unit. Results: 1) The diseases that motivated life in the forest were digestive system diseases, lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine system diseases, and various lifestyle-related diseases and environmental diseases in similar proportions. This indicates that forest life does not have specificity to respond to specific diseases, but provides treatment and recovery for all lifestyle and environmental diseases. 2) Among the forest therapies, climate therapy and plant therapy are related to the climatic and residential environment in the forest where 'natural persons' live. And others such as water therapy, diet therapy, kinesiotherapy, psychotherapy indicate the change from the lifestyle that caused the disease to the lifestyle for treatment and recovery. Conclusion: Life and activities in the forest provide an environment for treatment and recovery in which the healing principles such as aromatherapy, nutritional and dietary therapy, kinesiotherapy, and emotional psychotherapy are integrated in the 'real world'.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.107-117
• /
• 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 People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.557-564
• /
• 2018

Along with the aging society, the prevalence of dementia is also increasing. Dementia causes short-term memory loss as well as difficulties of performing daily activities and gradually causes suffering of the patients and their family. In spite of various programs for prevention of dementia of older people are being implemented, there is a lack of developing natural-based program for physical and mental health promotion. Therefore, it is necessary to develop programs for the elderly living alone who are more vulnerable to dementia because of their social and economic isolation. The purpose of this study was to develop a natural-based program and investigate the effects of 10 weeks forest therapy program for dementia prevention to improve the psychological and physical health of the elderly living alone. The experimental subjects were 30 elderly (aged 65 or older) and 31 elderly participated in control group. The Stress response, depressive symptoms, weight, body mass index (BMI), fat mass and muscle mass were measured for pre and post test. The results showed that the experimental group showed subjective stress relief (t=5.249, p=.000), improvement in symptoms of depression (t=4.152, p=.000), and decreases in weight (t=2.686, p=.012), BMI (t=2.629, p=.014) and fat mass (t=2.918, p=.007) after the forest therapy program. The experimental group showed lower stress reactions(t=-7.185, p=.000) and less depressive symptoms (t=-5.303, p=.000) than control group after participating the program. These results suggest that periodic forest exposure can help having less stressful and depressive status than non-forest exposure and the forest therapy program can reduce participants' psychological and physical risk factors of dementia.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.271-276
• /
• 2016

Though various studies have analyzed the impact of physically being in the forest, consideration of the time factors is omitted in many of them. Since space and time mutually affect each other, the effects that resulted by the space factor can change when the time factor is introduced. In this paper, the focus was made on how the time spent in the forest influences the four resulting factors: live experiences, flow experiences, health perception and inner psychological perception. This research is based on the surveys taken from April to October, 2014. The focus of the questionnaire was to measure 'Live Experience (LE)', 'Flow (FL)', 'Health Perception (HP)' and 'Inner Psychological Perception (IPP)' levels among the participants. The respondents of the survey aged between 40 and 70, participating in Forest or ecological courses, living in the Northern area of Chungchungnam-do province of Korea. Additionally their past experiences ranged from as little as one year to as long as twenty years in forest related fields. It will be shown that the time spent in the forest affects the levels of LE, FL, HP, IPP, increasing them in proportion to the time with statistical significance. This result would be useful not only for those who are in charge of creating forest healing programs but also for people who study forest healing. Because the time spent in the forest influences the levels of LE, FL, HP, IPP, the forest healing programs will benefit by taking this result into consideration.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.267-277
• /
• 2021

This study investigates sound, scenery, and soundscape preferences, which are sensory factors that users feel in a healing forest, comparing the difference in recovery by the soundscape. In the barrier-free, wooden walking path of the National Daegwallyeong Healing Forest, a survey site with five different conditions was selected. Users prefer water sounds the most and places with open views for scenery. For the complex sensation of soundscapes, the most preferred is a space where water sounds can be heard, and either a waterfall or an open view can be seen. A profile of mood states test was use to compare users' psychological recovery by the soundscape. It was found that users felt the most positive mood with water sounds and open views. In addition, users' preference for artificial sounds, scenery, and soundscape was the lowest. In the mood state test, it was found that the artificial soundscape incited the most negative emotions.