Interprofessional Teamwork To Explore the Impacts of Urban Parks On Stress Reduction.

Issue: The physiological effects of urban parks on stress relief and the factors that contribute to the effects are not well understood. Students from both occupational therapy (OT) and medical laboratory science (MLS) programs collaborated to explore the answers. Method: A one-group pretest-posttest research design was employed in this study. OT students worked in urban parks to recruit participants, administer a questionnaire about the subjective wellbeing (SWB) and collect a small amount of saliva before and after their park visits. MLS students worked in laboratories to test the Cortisol and DHEA concentrations in the salivary samples using a sensitive and specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The data collected from questionnaires and assays were merged and analyzed by both professional students. Outcomes: The levels of all biomarkers in saliva decreased, and SWB scores increased after the park visit. The duration of park visit was a key variable and a duration of 21.8 min had the predictive ability to discriminate Cortisol reductions in park visitors from those in non-park visitors. Conclusion: It is recommended that design of a park space should attract visitors to stay for at least 20 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]