Nature Walks or Exercise as a Group Activity, the Effect Well-being, Sleep and Activity.

NCT05893212 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: HUS/3520/2017
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 79
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Contact with nature promotes human wellbeing through diverse pathways, providing a potential way to support health especially in primary care, where patients commonly suffer from multimorbidity and poor general health. Social prescribing as a non-pharmaceutical treatment is a promising method to improve health as well as inclusion. This study explores and compares the effects of a nature based and an exercise based social prescribing scheme on mental wellbeing, physical activity and sleep, in a primary care population.

Conditions

Health Promotion; Multimorbidity

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (5)

• Change in positive mental well-being

  Self-assessed mental wellbeing measured with the 14-item Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS).

  At beginning of study (day 0), 4.th meeting (day 28) and at end of study (day 56-58)

• Change in self rated health

  Question: How is your health at the moment? Likert-like scale: 1-5

  At beginning of study (day 0), 4.th meeting (day 28) and at end of study (day 56-58)

• Change in self rated mental health

  Question: How is your mental health at the moment? Likert-like scale: 1- 5 (much/good/well).

  At beginning of study (day 0), 4.th meeting (day 28) and at end of study (day 56-58)

• Change in functioning ability

  Question: How is your functioning ability at the moment? Likert-like scale: 1-5

  At beginning of study (day 0), 4.th meeting (day 28) and at end of study (day 56-58)

• Change in percieved sleep

  Question: How do you sleep at the moment? Likert-like scale: 1-5

  At beginning of study (day 0), 4.th meeting (day 28) and at end of study (day 56-58)

Secondary Outcomes (9)

• Change in total sleep time

  Before starting intervention (day 0) and after intervention (day 56-60)

• Change in time in bed.

  Before starting intervention (day 0) and after intervention (day 56-60)

• Change in sleep efficiency

  Before starting intervention (day 0) and after intervention (day 56-60)

• Change in number and length of awakenings after sleep onset

  Before starting intervention (day 0) and after intervention (day 56-60)

• Change in light physical activity

  Before starting intervention (day 0) and after intervention (day 56-60)

Study Arms (2)

Nature-group

EXPERIMENTAL

Primary care patients identified to be in the target group for health promoting activity by health or social service professionals. Participants chose to take part in the 8 week nature-group, meeting weekly in outdoor areas.

Behavioral: Nature based facilitated group intervention

Sports-group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Primary care patients identified to be in the target group for health promoting activity by health or social service professionals. Participants chose to take part in the 8 week sports-group, meeting weekly in community sports facilities.

Behavioral: Exercise in group

Interventions

Nature based facilitated group intervention BEHAVIORAL

The Nature-group programme included learning more about local outdoor areas and nature itself, the biotopes visited were chosen to provide a various nature experience, including forests, farmland, lakes, and seashore. Accompanied by nature guides the group practiced simple sensorial exercises that enhance the contact with nature and its microbiome.

Nature-group

Exercise in group BEHAVIORAL

The Sports-group participated in an exercise programme and met weekly in community sports facilities. Exercise we define as a planned, structured, repetitive, and purposeful form of physical activity that aims for improvement or maintenance of one or more components of physical fitness. The sports programme was planned and executed by professional sports leaders in cooperation with health professionals and included both aerobic and anaerobic exercise as well as team sports, content was planned according to current best practice and considered the participants physical ability.

Sports-group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Need of health promotion or secondary prevention of disease as identified by health care professionals or by social care professionals working in a public health care center (nurse, doctor, or social worker).
• Enrolment was not based on a diagnosis, but health care and social care professionals were instructed to identify patients/clients they felt could benefit from a targeted health intervention and involve particularly those in poor general health.
• Adults with a physical ability to slowly walk approximately 3 km in a slow tempo.
• Ability to understand and give consent to participation.
• Age 18 years or older.

You may not qualify if:

• Untreated medical condition hindering physical activity or symptomatic condition demanding continuous attention.
• Disability preventing ability to move in terrain.
• Inability to take part in group-based activities due to, e.g., behavioral challenges.
• Although reason of referral is not reported, enrolment in intervention was part of real-life treatment.
• Eligibility was assessed by professionals referring to the intervention, as well as at the introductory meeting organized by the staff at the public health care center taking place before the intervention started.
• It was possible to take part in the intervention but not the study, participants in the study signed an informed consent allowing use of data and giving permission for later contact. Participants were free to withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason, and this did not interfere with their care in any way.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Helsinki: lead
• Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare: collaborator
• Municipality of Sipoo, Health and Social services: collaborator
• Luonnontie: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Sipoo Social and Health center

Sipoo, Itä-Uusimaa, 04130, Finland

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Kolster A, Heikkinen M, Pajunen A, Mickos A, Wennman H, Partonen T. Targeted health promotion with guided nature walks or group exercise: a controlled trial in primary care. Front Public Health. 2023 Aug 24;11:1208858. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1208858. eCollection 2023.

  PMID: 37766747 DERIVED

Related Links

• Master's thesis, Heikkinen, Malin (2022) Hälsofrämjande Hälsoskog gruppverksamhet i Sibbo kommuns social- och hälsovårdstjänster: upplevelser ur ett deltagarperspektiv

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Exercise; Population Groups

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Motor Activity; Movement; Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena; Demography; Population Characteristics

Study Officials

• Timo Partonen, MD, PhD

  Research professor at Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

  STUDY DIRECTOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Masking Details: Care provider recommended participation in either group, based on discussion with participant. All data is anonymized and stored at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and outcomes assessor has access to this data, however, it includes knowledge of group participation.
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Doctoral researcher

Model Details: This is a controlled pilot study on parallel groups in a real life, intention-to-treat setting.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 15, 2023
• First Posted: June 7, 2023
• Study Start: March 1, 2018
• Primary Completion: December 31, 2020
• Study Completion: December 31, 2020
• Last Updated: June 7, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

FI (1)