As part of a clinical study, the Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) is sending people with metabolic syndrome to the Salzburg city mountains from mid-September. The study examines how a specially developed program of hikes and mindfulness training affects health and quality of life. Participants are still being sought for the study. Support comes from the city of Salzburg, the Friends of Nature and the ÖGK. In the long term, a “Resilience Hub” is to be set up in Salzburg under the leadership of the PMU, which brings together all relevant actors for nature-based community health promotion.
“Metabolic syndrome” (MetS) is a health problem that now affects around a quarter of Austrians – often without knowing it. It is a combination of risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar and blood fat levels, which together significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, type II diabetes and premature death. Factors such as physical inactivity and stress play a role in its development. “The high prevalence of metabolic syndrome shows the need for low-threshold and resilience-promoting public health initiatives for this widespread disease of civilization,” says Univ.-Prof. Arnulf Hartl, head of the Institute for Ecomedicine at the Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) in Salzburg.
“Studies show that spending time in nature and exercising outdoors has a lasting effect on health and well-being. Compared to exercise indoors, this creates additional psychophysiological and social effects from which people with a sedentary lifestyle, metabolic syndrome and little contact with nature can benefit,” says Hartl. As part of the Horizon Europe project “RESONATE”, the immunologist and his team have developed a 10-week nature-based program for this target group, which consists of easy hikes and nature-based mindfulness training in the Salzburg city mountains.
The effect of this intervention on biopsychosocial resilience is being investigated in a clinical study (“NATURE-MET-SALZBURG”) in cooperation with the University Clinic for Internal Medicine I at the University Hospital of Salzburg. Arnulf Hartl explains: “We measure the health of the participants via the so-called biopsychosocial resilience. This is a crucial factor for mental, physical and social health. The term includes not only psychological aspects such as self-efficacy, but also biological components such as improved immune function and social factors such as interpersonal relationships.”
Study starts in September, participants wanted
A total of 140 people with metabolic syndrome between the ages of 40 and 65 will be included in the study. The participants are divided into an intervention group (“nature group”) and a control group. The participants in the control group are examined at three times at the same time as the intervention group and can also take advantage of the nature-based therapy after all surveys have been completed. The program will be implemented in two consecutive rounds in fall 2024 and spring 2025.
“Our goal is to create a scientific basis for nature-based therapies, which will then also be offered through social insurance providers,” says Hartl. The location in the city of Salzburg is ideal: “The city of Salzburg offers special conditions for designing nature-based prevention formats for its population. There is hardly any other place in Europe where there are such well-developed and easy-to-reach green city mountains, whose network of hiking trails and nature can be used for local health promotion.”
Support from the city, ÖGK and nature lovers
The study has received positive feedback from both the city of Salzburg and the ÖGK in Salzburg. “We support the creation of low-threshold nature-based health offers for the citizens of our city and will inform all employees about the study. The project is also an ideal fit for the Moving City, with which we are expanding opportunities for movement in public spaces and creating new ones or making them more visible,” says Mayor Bernhard Auinger. “The project is also of particular importance for the ÖGK and fits perfectly with our current priorities. Personal responsibility and activity are the basic building blocks of a healthy lifestyle,” confirms ÖGK chairman Thom Kinberger. The study is also supported by Naturfreunde Salzburg, which has been implementing nature-based offers for people in the city of Salzburg for years.
At the same time as the study in Salzburg, analogous studies are being carried out in Barcelona and Padua in order to be able to compare the effects of the different natural areas. While in Salzburg the focus is on the Alpine city mountains, in Padua it is on the urban parks and in Barcelona on the urban coastal areas.
The PMU is still looking for study participants for the clinical study in Salzburg. Participation is free. Further information and link to register: https://www.pmu.ac.at/ecomedicine
Networking: Setting up a resilience hub in Salzburg
As part of the RESONATE project and based on the results of the clinical study, a “Resilience Hub” is to be created in Salzburg, which will network all relevant actors and initiatives that deal with nature-based programs to promote physical, mental and social health. As a first step towards establishing such a resilience hub, a mini-symposium is planned at the PMU in cooperation with the city of Salzburg in autumn 2024, at which existing initiatives will be presented and an initial basis for long-term networking and collaboration will be created.
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Horizon Europe project RESONATE | https://resonate-horizon.eu/
In recent years, public interest in nature-based therapies to promote physical, mental and social health has increased significantly. Studies show that spending time in nature, especially when combined with physical activity, can have a wide range of positive effects on health and well-being. These range from a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes to an improvement in subjective well-being and resilience and reduced mortality. Despite the great potential of nature-based therapies (NbTs), relatively little is still known about a) the exact relationships between nature and health, b) their ecological, economic and social impacts and c) the current obstacles and prerequisites for an increased integration of nature-based programs into the existing health and social systems in Europe, for example through social prescribing.
This is where the Horizon Europe project RESONATE comes in. Under the direction of environmental psychologist Dr. Mat White from the University of Vienna, the project brings together a consortium of internationally leading experts and organizations from research, practice, politics and innovation in the field of NbT with stakeholders from the areas of health, ecology, business and society to jointly develop it and to promote the provision of nature-based therapies in the health and social sectors in Europe.
As part of the project, a comprehensive global analysis of nature-based therapies (NBTs) will be carried out and a total of nine scientific studies will be carried out. These studies explore the effects of nature-based interventions on different population groups in the areas of prevention, therapy and rehabilitation. They also collect data on the ecological, social and economic aspects of these interventions. Furthermore, the establishment of so-called resilience hubs is planned in the three cities of Salzburg, Padua and Barcelona. In these hubs, all actors who deal with nature-based therapies for health promotion and prevention are to be networked in order to be able to offer them more in the health and social sector in the future – for example via “social prescribing”.
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