Cognitive functioning and academic performance of pupils depend on regular breaks from classroom work. However, it is unclear which settings during such breaks provide the best environment to restore cognitive performance and promote wellbeing of adolescent pupils. Therefore, we investigated the effects of staying in different urban green spaces during breaks. Sixty-four pupils (16⁻18 years old) participated in a cross-over experiment. They were placed into one of three settings (small park, larger park, forest) for one hour during a lunch break. Wellbeing was assessed four times (Nitsch scale), and a cognitive test (d2-R Test of Attention) was applied in the classrooms before and after the break. Wellbeing was almost always highest after the stay in the green spaces. However, a sustained effect was only found for the forest. Concentration performance values of the d2-R test were significantly higher after the pupils’ stay in green spaces for all sites. The highest increase of performance was found for the larger park type. In conclusion, this pilot study showed that study breaks in green spaces improved wellbeing and cognitive performance of adolescents. It also found that larger green spaces, either parks or forests, have stronger positive impacts on wellbeing and cognitive performance than small parks.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6025403 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061205 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Cardiovascular health in perspective: a comprehensive five-year geodatabase of hospitalizations and environmental factors in Mashhad, Iran.
BMC Res Notes
January 2025
UQ Centre for Clinical Research, Faculty of Health Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Objectives: This data note presents a comprehensive geodatabase of cardiovascular disease (CVD) hospitalizations in Mashhad, Iran, alongside key environmental factors such as air pollutants, built environment indicators, green spaces, and urban density. Using a spatiotemporal dataset of over 52,000 hospitalized CVD patients collected over five years, the study supports approaches like advanced spatiotemporal modeling, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to predict high-risk CVD areas and guide public health interventions.
Data Description: This dataset includes detailed epidemiologic and geospatial information on CVD hospitalizations in Mashhad, Iran, from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2020.
Interplay Between Residential Nature Exposure and Walkability and Their Association with Cardiovascular Health.
JACC Adv
January 2025
Center for Health & Nature, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, Texas, USA.
Background: Green space has been linked with cardiovascular (CV) health. Nature access and quality may have significant impact on CV risk factors and health.
Objectives: The authors aimed to investigate the relationship between NatureScore, a composite score for natural environment exposure and quality of green spaces, with CV risk factors and atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD).
Time-Critical Emergencies in Suburban Parks and Outdoor Recreation Spaces.
Cureus
December 2024
Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.
Objective Prior studies have described the patterns of emergency medical service (EMS) activations in national parks in the United States. However, little data exists regarding EMS activations in local and regional outdoor recreational locations. We performed a retrospective analysis of EMS activations originating from parks and recreational areas in suburban Howard County, Maryland, to characterize those activations determined to be time-critical emergencies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUrban parks biowaste as a sustainable source of new antidiabetics.
Acta Pharm
December 2024
University of Zagreb Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Department of Pharmacognosy 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Biowaste produced in urban parks is composed of large masses of organic matter that is only occasionally used economically. In this work, extracts of six plants widely distributed in urban parks in Central Europe (, , , , , and ), prepared using 10 % and 50 % ethanol, were screened for their antidiabetic and related properties. HPLC and UV-Vis analysis revealed the presence of caffeic acid, quercetin, luteolin, and apigenin derivatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA park-based group mobility program for older adults with difficulty walking outdoors: a qualitative process evaluation of the Getting Older Adults Outdoors (GO-OUT) randomized controlled trial.
BMC Geriatr
January 2025
Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Background: The Getting Older Adults Outdoors (GO-OUT) randomized controlled trial showed that a workshop and 10-week park-based outdoor walk group (OWG) was superior to the workshop and 10 weekly reminders (WR) with increasing walking capacity, but not outdoor walking activity, health-promoting behavior, or successful aging, among older adults with difficulty walking outdoors. The objective of this planned process evaluation was to explore participants' perceptions of mechanisms of impact of and contextual factors influencing experiences with the interventions to help explain the observed intervention effects on study outcomes.
Methods: A qualitative descriptive study involving semi-structured interviews conducted at 6-months post-baseline was conducted.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!