The Effectiveness of MBSR in Natural Environments

NCT05451758 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 150258786
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 99
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

With the prescription of antidepressants at record levels, and a huge demand for psychological therapies, health and social care providers are interested in cost-effective interventions to improve wellbeing and to prevent mental health problems. At the same time, there is a renewed interest in complementary and alternative therapies, such as yoga, meditation practices, and aromatherapy to support psychological resilience and prevent mental illness. Mindfulness practice has grown quickly as one such complementary and alternative approach to coping with certain forms of mental illness and symptoms of poor mental and physical health. The potential salutogenic benefits of mindfulness practice have been recognized, and mindfulness practice has received a great deal of attention as an intervention in a clinical/medical setting to address specific disorders (e.g. chronic pain or anxiety). The most widely used MBI is mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which offers an intensive 8-week programme (as well as shorter 4-6-week versions) involving a range of formal sitting and walking meditation, body scanning, mindful movement and informal mindfulness practices. Reviews of the effects and clinical effectiveness of MBSR indicate positive results in terms of the treatment of a range of different physiological and psychosocial conditions, including stress reduction and relief from emotional distress, depression and anxiety. Whilst this evidence demonstrates the significant mental health and wellbeing benefits of mindfulness-based interventions, there has been little research into combining mindfulness with restorative experiences, such as exposure to nature. The aim of the study is to investigate whether the effectiveness of MBSR are enhanced when combined with a natural environment. The investigators hypothesise that MBSR in a natural environment results in greater nature connectedness than in a built outdoor or an indoor environment (hypothesis 1). It is also hypothesised that MBSR achieves the best mental health and wellbeing outcomes when conducted in a natural environment (hypothesis 2).

Conditions

Stress-related Problem

Keywords

Mindfulness; Stress

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Change in positive and negative emotions

  The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) measures hedonic wellbeing, eliciting respondent's current state across a wide variety of emotions. The PANAS contains two 10-item subscales designed to measure positive feelings (i.e. interested, excited, strong, enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, attentive, determined and active), and negative feelings (i.e. distressed, upset, guilty, scared, hostile, irritated, ashamed, nervous, jittery and afraid). Respondents were asked how much they felt each of the 20 emotions (1= not at all, 5= extremely). Scores ranged from 10 to 50 with higher scores indicating higher levels of positive or negative feelings

  Change in PANAS from baseline to one month after the completion of the 6-week MBSR

• Change in depression, anxiety and stress

  Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) contains 21 psychological questions related to the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress (Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995; Antony et al., 1998). The DASS-21 contains three self-report subscales with seven phrases that describe how respondents felt in the past week on a four-point scale (0= never, 3= almost always): e.g. Depression ("I felt that I had nothing to look forward to"); e.g. Anxiety ("I was worried about situations in which I might panic and make a fool of myself"); and e.g. Stress ("I found it difficult to relax"). Scores ranged from 0 to 42 with higher scores indicating higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress.

  Change in DASS-21 from baseline to one month after the completion of the 6-week MBSR

• Change in hair cortisol concentration (HCC)

  Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) is used as a marker of chronic stress. Cortisol is commonly known as the stress hormone because it is released via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) in higher doses under stressful conditions.

  Change in HCC from baseline to one month after the completion of the 6-week MBSR

Study Arms (3)

Natural outdoor environment

EXPERIMENTAL

The park is a well-managed green space containing trees, shrubs, flower beds, lawns and a lake, and includes facilities such as benches, wooden bridges, a bandstand and monuments. The experiment was carried out in a location defined by planted areas containing shrubs and small trees, with some distant views.

Other: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

Built outdoor environment

EXPERIMENTAL

A courtyard on the university campus was chosen as a built outdoor environment. The courtyard was surrounded by concrete and brick built settings, with no visible vegetation.

Other: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

Indoor environment

EXPERIMENTAL

The indoor setting was a seminar room: a white painted room without windows in the basement of a university building. It contained chairs, a neutral coloured picture and no vegetation.

Other: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

Interventions

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) OTHER

The participants were asked to attend a brief version of the MBSR programme lasting six weeks. The intervention was a structured 6-week programme with groups of between 6 and 10 participants. Each weekly session lasted one hour and included mindfulness meditation/exercises and group discussion led by a qualified mindfulness instructor.

Built outdoor environment; Indoor environment; Natural outdoor environment

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Adults aged 18 and over
• Students and staff at the University of Sheffield

You may not qualify if:

• Having severe and enduring mental health conditions (i.e. people currently receiving treatment for such conditions).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Sheffield: lead

Study Sites (1)

Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Sheffield

Sheffield, United Kingdom

Location

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Mindfulness; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Behavior Therapy; Psychotherapy; Behavioral Disciplines and Activities

Study Officials

• Eun Yeong Choe, PhD

  University of Sheffield

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: QUADRUPLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, CARE PROVIDER, INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 24, 2022
• First Posted: July 11, 2022
• Study Start: April 20, 2017
• Primary Completion: December 13, 2017
• Study Completion: December 13, 2017
• Last Updated: July 11, 2022

Record last verified: 2017-04

Locations

GB (1)