IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0103231.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Health Effects of a Forest Environment on Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease and Heath-Related Quality of Life

Author

Listed:
  • Tsung-Ming Tsao
  • Ming-Jer Tsai
  • Ya-Nan Wang
  • Heng-Lun Lin
  • Chang-Fu Wu
  • Jing-Shiang Hwang
  • Sandy-HJ Hsu
  • Hsing Chao
  • Kai-Jen Chuang
  • Charles- CK Chou
  • Ta-Chen Su

Abstract

Background: Assessment of health effects of a forest environment is an important emerging area of public health and environmental sciences. Purpose: To demonstrate the long-term health effects of living in a forest environment on subclinical cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) compared with that in an urban environment. Materials and Methods: This study included the detailed health examination and questionnaire assessment of 107 forest staff members (FSM) and 114 urban staff members (USM) to investigate the long-term health effects of a forest environment. Air quality monitoring between the forest and urban environments was compared. In addition, work-related factors and HRQOL were evaluated. Results: Levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and fasting glucose in the USM group were significantly higher than those in the FSM group. Furthermore, a significantly higher intima-media thickness of the internal carotid artery was found in the USM group compared with that in the FSM group. Concentrations of air pollutants, such as NO, NO2, NOx, SO2, CO, PM2.5, and PM10 in the forest environment were significantly lower compared with those in the outdoor urban environment. Working hours were longer in the FSM group; however, the work stress evaluation as assessed by the job content questionnaire revealed no significant differences between FSM and USM. HRQOL evaluated by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire showed FSM had better HRQOL scores in the physical health domain. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of the potential beneficial effects of forest environments on CVDs and HRQOL.

Suggested Citation

  • Tsung-Ming Tsao & Ming-Jer Tsai & Ya-Nan Wang & Heng-Lun Lin & Chang-Fu Wu & Jing-Shiang Hwang & Sandy-HJ Hsu & Hsing Chao & Kai-Jen Chuang & Charles- CK Chou & Ta-Chen Su, 2014. "The Health Effects of a Forest Environment on Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease and Heath-Related Quality of Life," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-8, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0103231
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103231
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0103231
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0103231&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0103231?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anonymous, 1955. "World Health Organization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 285-288, May.
    2. Anonymous, 1955. "World Health Organization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 561-564, November.
    3. Anonymous, 1955. "World Health Organization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 178-181, February.
    4. Alan D. Lopez & Colin D. Mathers & Majid Ezzati & Dean T. Jamison & Christopher J. L. Murray, 2006. "Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7039.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hong, Sok Chul, 2013. "Malaria: An early indicator of later disease and work level," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 612-632.
    2. Kimberly M. Thompson & Radboud J. Duintjer Tebbens, 2006. "Retrospective Cost‐Effectiveness Analyses for Polio Vaccination in the United States," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1423-1440, December.
    3. Romeo Aznar, Victoria & Otero, Marcelo & De Majo, María Sol & Fischer, Sylvia & Solari, Hernán G., 2013. "Modeling the complex hatching and development of Aedes aegypti in temperate climates," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 44-55.
    4. Brimnes, Niels, 2008. "BCG vaccination and WHO's global strategy for tuberculosis control 1948-1983," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 863-873, September.
    5. Wielgosz, Benjamin & Mangheni, Margaret Najjingo & Tsegai, Daniel & Ringler, Claudia, 2012. "Malaria and agriculture: A global review of the literature with a focus on the application of integrated pest and vector management in East Africa and Uganda," IFPRI discussion papers 1232, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Richard Warren & Frank Fear & Gerald Klonglan, 1980. "Social-indicator model building: A multiple-indicator design," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 269-297, January.
    7. Robert Kane & Marilyn Dean & Marian Solomon, 1979. "An Evaluation of Rural Health Care Research," Evaluation Review, , vol. 3(2), pages 139-189, May.
    8. Randall M. Packard, 2009. "“Roll Back Malaria, Roll in Development”? Reassessing the Economic Burden of Malaria," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 35(1), pages 53-87, March.
    9. Hany Besada & Karolina Werner, 2015. "An assessment of the effects of Africa's water crisis on food security and management," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 120-133, March.
    10. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson, 2007. "Disease and Development: The Effect of Life Expectancy on Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(6), pages 925-985, December.
    11. Azwardi Azwardi & Sukanto Sukanto & Alghifari Mahdi Igamo & Arika Kurniawan, 2021. "Carbon Emissions, Economic Growth, Forest, Agricultural Land and Air Pollution in Indonesia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(4), pages 537-542.
    12. Kimberly M. Thompson, 2017. "Modeling and Managing the Risks of Measles and Rubella: A Global Perspective Part II," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(6), pages 1041-1051, June.
    13. Schalk, M.J.D., 1992. "Prediction versus explanation : What is the real aim of absence research ?," WORC Paper 92.07.003/4, Tilburg University, Work and Organization Research Centre.
    14. Henckes, Nicolas, 2009. "Narratives of change and reform processes: Global and local transactions in French psychiatric hospital reform after the Second World War," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 511-518, February.
    15. Junmin Wan, 2006. "Cigarette tax revenues and tobacco control in Japan," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(14), pages 1663-1675.
    16. Martin Chen, 1976. "A comprehensive population health index based on mortality and disability data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 257-271, September.
    17. Grosse, Scott, 1993. "Schistosomiasis And Water Resources Development: A Re-Evaluation Of An Important Environment-Health Linkage," Working Papers 11881, Environmental and Natural Resources Policy Training Project.
    18. Sok Chul Hong, 2011. "Malaria: An Early Indicator of Later Disease and Work Level," Working Papers 1110, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy).
    19. Tsung-Ming Tsao & Jing-Shiang Hwang & Sung-Tsun Lin & Charlene Wu & Ming-Jer Tsai & Ta-Chen Su, 2022. "Forest Bathing Is Better than Walking in Urban Park: Comparison of Cardiac and Vascular Function between Urban and Forest Parks," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    20. Anderson, Soren T. & Laxminarayan, Ramanan & Salant, Stephen W., 2012. "Diversify or focus? Spending to combat infectious diseases when budgets are tight," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 658-675.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0103231. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.