A natural solution to improving the quality and quantity of physical activity.

尽管有充分证据表明，定期体育活动（PA）对身心健康有益，但英国数百万人未能达到世界卫生组织推荐的水平（Bull等人，2020年；GOV.UK， 2022年）。这种长期的不活动每年花费NHS 4.55亿英镑（英国公共卫生部，2016年）。在不同年龄组、性别、地理区域和收入群体中，PA的参与存在显著的不平等（Haskell、Blair和Hill， 2009），进一步强调了研究促进PA参与的新策略的必要性。一个有希望的解决方案可能存在于大自然中，它有可能促进与PA的接触并提高所进行的PA的质量。公共卫生研究已经确定压力和疲劳是参与PA的主要障碍（Stults-Kolehmainen和Sinha, 2014； Bláfoss等人，2019），而积极的心理状态预示着参与PA的增加（Aurora， Disabato和Coifman， 2022）。实验工作报告显示，暴露于自然环境后，压力和疲劳减轻，情绪改善（Frumkin et al., 2017），强调了基于自然的PA促进持续参与PA的潜力。暴露在自然环境中也可以提高PA的质量。我在马斯特斯的研究中首次发现了由自然引起的身体机能的改善。这一观察结果对于提高公众参与中高强度体育锻炼的能力具有重要意义，这比低强度体育锻炼具有更大的健康益处（Nayor et al., 2021）。目的和目的本研究旨在探索利用自然来改善获得与PA相关的健康益处的可能性。方法：第一阶段将是对目前有关自然暴露对PA参与、表现和健康影响的知识进行系统回顾。第二阶段将涉及实验工作和原始数据收集，以共同创建和评估与城市环境相比，基于自然的干预措施对PA的参与和表现的有效性。这项工作将与多个利益攸关方合作开展。该数据收集阶段旨在回答以下问题：a)自然暴露是否会增加与PA的接触；B)提高运动表现c)提高整体健康。目前预计干预的实验评估将涉及一项平衡交叉随机对照试验。参与者将被随机分配在城市或森林环境中完成锻炼方案，四周后返回在另一种环境中重复该方案。将使用运动意图量表（Huang and Wu, 2021）和运动享受量表（Kendzierski and DeCarlo, 1991）来测量对PA的参与，通过考虑心血管和肌肉功能来测量PA的表现。此外，还将采取生理应激和心理状态的测量。目前，自然暴露是一种很有希望的公共卫生干预措施，可以增强人们获得与PA相关的健康益处。然而，目前没有足够的证据来支持其应用。该项目将产生制定有效战略所需的知识，通过在自然环境中锻炼来改善公众健康。我还希望，通过了解自然在人类健康中的作用，社会将更加重视自然环境，并最终采取更加协调一致的努力来保护和再生自然世界。

Despite the well-documented mental and physical health benefits of regular physical activity (PA), millions of people in the UK fail to meet the World Health Organisation's recommended levels (Bull et al., 2020; GOV.UK, 2022). This chronic inactivity costs the NHS £455 million per year (Public Health England, 2016). Significant inequalities exist in engagement with PA across different age groups, sexes, geographical areas and income groups (Haskell, Blair and Hill, 2009), further emphasising the need for research into novel strategies to boost PA participation.A promising solution may lie in nature, which has the potential to promote engagement with PA and enhance the quality of PA undertaken. Public health research has identified stress and fatigue as major barriers to engagement in PA (Stults-Kolehmainen and Sinha, 2014; Bláfoss et al., 2019), while a positive psychological state predicts increased engagement with PA (Aurora, Disabato and Coifman, 2022). Experimental work reporting reduced stress and fatigue, and improved mood, following exposure to natural environments (Frumkin et al., 2017) highlights the potential of nature-based PA to promote sustained engagement with PA. Nature exposure may also enhance the quality of PA undertaken. My Masters research identified, for the first time, nature-induced improvements in physical performance. This observation has significant implications for improving the public's ability to engage in moderate-to-vigorous PA, which has greater health benefits than low-intensity PA (Nayor et al., 2021).Aims and ObjectivesThis research seeks to explore the potential use of nature to improve access to the health benefits associated with PA. MethodsPhase 1 will be a systematic review of current knowledge of the effect of nature exposure on PA engagement, performance and health. Phase 2 will involve experimental work and primary data collection to co-create and assess the effectiveness of a nature-based intervention on engagement with and performance of PA, compared to urban environments. This work will be performed in collaboration with multiple stakeholders. This data collection phase aims to answer the question of whether nature exposure a) increases engagement with PA; b) increases exercise performance and c) increases holistic health.It is currently anticipated that experimental assessment of the intervention will involve a counterbalanced crossover randomised controlled trial. Participants will be randomly assigned to complete the exercise protocol in either an urban or forest environment, before returning four weeks later to repeat the protocol in the other environment. Engagement with PA will be measured using the Exercise Intention Scale (Huang and Wu, 2021) and the PA Enjoyment Scale (Kendzierski and DeCarlo, 1991) PA performance will be measured through consideration of both cardiovascular and muscular function. Additionally, measures of physiological stress and psychological state will be taken. At present, nature exposure represents a promising public health intervention to enhance population access to the health benefits associated with PA. However, there is currently insufficient evidence to inform its application. This project will generate the knowledge required to develop effective strategies to improve public health through exercise in natural environments. I also hope that by understanding nature's role in human health, society will better value natural environments and, ultimately, undertake more concerted efforts to conserve and regenerate the natural world.