Effects of Forest Therapy on Cognitive Performance and Mental Health in Older Adults Health in Older Adults

National Taiwan University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Forest Therapy for Cognition

Treatments: Behavioral: Board Games; Behavioral: Senior fitness training; Behavioral: Forest therapy training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05359289

202105HM079

Details and patient eligibility

About

In Taiwan, aging is happening at a fast pace. The Taiwan Ministry of Interior officially announced that Taiwan will become an aged society in April 2018 and is expected to transition into a hyper-aged society within eight years. Critically, scholars recognize that optimizing cognitive activity and wellbeing influences quality of life in a late life which in turn is a key factor for successful aging. To alleviate the social and economic impact of aging, as well as impact on families, there is a need for studying anti-aging approaches. The World Health Organization suggests that the general public should have a healthy lifestyle which includes participating in activities for physical health, as well as cognitive and mental health involving maintaining social interactions. This present research is part of a broader integrated program in which the purpose is to promote and study the efficacy of forest therapy on physical health, and cognitive and mental health in older adults. The study site is located at the National Taiwan Science Education Center (NTSEC) which includes wetlands, waterfronts, green-spaces and urban parks. The investigators will evaluate two types of interventions for participants, "forest therapy program" and "fitness program" for older adults. The study approach applies a between-subjects and pretest-posttest design. The investigators will collect participants' physical data, psychological responses, and cognitive performance in the course of both programs. By comparing these data before and after the intervention programs, the investigators seek to understand the both programs' effects on physical health, and cognitive and mental health.

Full description

In Taiwan, aging is happening at a fast pace. The Taiwan Ministry of Interior officially announced that Taiwan will become an aged society in April 2018 and is expected to transition into a hyper-aged society within eight years. Critically, scholars recognize that optimizing cognitive activity and wellbeing influences quality of life in a late life which in turn is a key factor for successful aging. To alleviate the social and economic impact of aging, as well as impact on families, there is a need for studying anti-aging approaches. The World Health Organization suggests that the general public should have a healthy lifestyle which includes participating in activities for physical health, as well as cognitive and mental health involving maintaining social interactions. This present research is part of a broader integrated program in which the purpose is to promote and study the efficacy of forest therapy on physical health, and cognitive and mental health in older adults. The study site is located at the National Taiwan Science Education Center (NTSEC) which includes wetlands, waterfronts, green-spaces and urban parks. The investigators will evaluate two types of interventions for participants, "forest therapy program" and "fitness program" for older adults. The study approach applies a between-subjects and pretest-posttest design. The investigators will collect participants' physical data, psychological responses, and cognitive performance in the course of both programs. By comparing these data before and after the intervention programs, the investigators seek to understand the both programs' effects on physical health, and cognitive and mental health. In addition, the investigators will elucidate the efficacy of the forest therapy program through measurement of the changes in physical, cognitive, and mental health performance and status indicators. The forest therapy and fitness programs at National Taiwan Science Education Center (NTSEC), along with a robot programming training and tinkering activities that are part of the broader project, acts as a public education and service window towards addressing cognitive aging issues in Taiwan. It should be further noted that this will be a critical platform for obtaining ecological research data on a novel class of cognitive interventions for cognitive aging using psychological and brain imaging techniques to bridge critical neural mechanistic knowledge gaps.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Literate in Mandarin and Taiwanese.
• Willing to participate entirely in this research.
• Age > 65.

Exclusion criteria

• Participated in cognitive-related training in the past two months.
• Diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment(MCI)
• Severe psychological or behavioral disorder that would seriously interfere with the progress of activity.
• Severe hearing Impairments or visual Impairment
• History of degenerative cognitive disorders, Organic Mental Disorders, Brain Dysfunction, Psychogenic neurosis.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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120 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Forest therapy training

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will expect to have an improvement of cognitive functions via a serial nature-based therapy/intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Forest therapy training

Senior fitness training

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will expect to have an improvement of cognitive functions through a structural senior fitness program.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Senior fitness training

Board Games

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Participants will play boards games under a schedule matching the Experimental and Active Comparator arms.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Board Games