Comparative Effects of Meditation, Nature Exposure, and Digital Activities on Physiological and Perceived Stress

NCT07673653 | Active Not Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: Lum_1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 100
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The present study aims to compare the effects of meditation, nature exposure, digital scrolling, and reading on physiological and perceived stress. Participants will undergo a baseline assessment including the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), a visual analogue scale (VAS) for anxiety, and salivary cortisol collection at 8:30 a.m, prior to cortisol peak. Participants will then engage in one of four activities: guided meditation, a walk in a forest environment, digital scrolling on a smartphone, or reading a neutral text. Following the activity, salivary cortisol will be collected again and anxiety will be reassessed using the VAS. The study will evaluate changes in cortisol levels, perceived stress and perceived anxiety across the four conditions and explore the potential moderating role of baseline mindfulness traits. The central research question of this study is whether different experiential conditions elicit distinct psychophysiological responses, as reflected by changes in perceived stressm salivary cortisol and perceived anxiety and therefore this investigation could improve the understanding of how different experiential contexts influence short-term stress regulation.

Conditions

Psychophysical Well-being

Keywords

forest bathing; stress; meditation; scrolling

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in perceived stress.

  Change in perceived stress measured using a Visual Analog Scale for Stress (VAS-Stress), ranging from 0 to 100, where 0 indicates no perceived stress and 100 indicates the highest level of perceived stress imaginable. The outcome will be calculated as the difference between post-intervention and pre-intervention scores. Negative values indicate a reduction in perceived stress following the intervention.

  Baseline and immediately after the single intervention session (same day).

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Change in anxiety levels

  Baseline and immediately after the single intervention session (same day).

• Change in salivary cortisol concentrations

  Baseline and immediately after the single intervention session (same day).

• Change in salivary DHEA concentrations

  Baseline and immediately after the single intervention session (same day).

• Correlation between trait mindfulness and physiological stress responses

  Baseline and immediately after the single intervention session (same day).

• - Correlations among psychological and biological outcome measures, including VAS-Stress, VAS-Anxiety, cortisol, and DHEA

  Baseline and immediately after the single intervention session (same day).

Study Arms (4)

Experimental

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in this groups will undergo a mindfulness based intervention. The meditation tecniques will differ one from the other for focused breathing, body relaxation, emotional awareness and acceptance exercises. The intervention consists of 1 in person session of 20 minutes.

Behavioral: Mindfulness-based intervention

No Intervention

NO INTERVENTION

Participants in this group will not receive any psychophysiological interventions during the study. This group serve as a passiva control group to evaluate the effectivness of the mindfulness-based intervention by comparing pre and post intervention measures.

Forest bathing

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The forest bathing group will act as a an active control group. Forest bathing is known to exert psyhophysiological effects on the stress response system, allowing to evaluate different stress management techniques

Behavioral: Forest bathing

Scrolling

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Scrolling group will act as an active control group to evaluate the absence of the positive psychophysiological stress response. The intervention consists of 1 in person session of 20 minutes.

Behavioral: Scrolling

Interventions

Mindfulness-based intervention BEHAVIORAL

The intervention consists of 1 in person session of mindfulness of 20 minutes.

Experimental

Forest bathing BEHAVIORAL

Participants engaged in guided forest immersion including mindful walking, sensory awareness, meditation, and nature-based contemplative activities.The intervention consists of 1 in person session of 20 minutes.

Forest bathing

Scrolling BEHAVIORAL

Strolling consisted of a slow, relaxed walk in a natural environment without specific mindfulness or sensory-awareness instructions.

Scrolling

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 20 Years - 80 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Understanding of the Italian language

You may not qualify if:

• Presence of severe mental disorders and/or significant medical conditions
• Endocrine or metabolic disorders
• Substance dependence

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Pavia: lead
• University of Padova: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Cascina Cravino Via Bassi 21

Pavia, Italia, 27100, Italy

Location

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Forest Therapy

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Relaxation Therapy; Mind-Body Therapies; Complementary Therapies; Therapeutics

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: The Outcome Assessor and Data Analyst are blinded to group allocation. Participants are not informed of their assigned condition prior to allocation; however, blinding is not feasible after the intervention begins because the nature of the assigned activity becomes apparent. Personnel delivering the interventions are aware of group assignment but are not involved in outcome assessment or data analysis
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Model Details: Participants will be allocated to one of four intervention conditions using a non-randomized allocation procedure. To minimize expectancy effects, participants will remain unaware of their assigned condition until the intervention begins The study involves five groups: two receiving a mindfulness-based intervention, one participating in a forest-bathing activity, one assigned to a neutral reading condition, and one assigned to a smartphone scrolling condition. The reading and scrolling groups serve as comparison conditions The outcomes are measured before and after the intervention, comparing the effects between the 5 groups.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 18, 2026
• First Posted: June 29, 2026
• Study Start: November 5, 2025
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2026
• Study Completion: July 1, 2026
• Last Updated: June 29, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-06

Locations

IT (1)