October 13, 2024
Ehsan Heidarzadeh

Ehsan Heidarzadeh

Academic Rank: Assistant professor
Address: bushehr,persian gulf university,faculty of art and architecture
Degree: Ph.D in urbanism
Phone: 077-33320196
Faculty: Faculty of Art and Architecture

Research

Title Assessing the Impact of Outdoor Activities on Mental Wellbeing; Focusing on the Walking Path in Urban Area
Type Article
Keywords
COVID-19; Mental wellbeing; Mood, Urban area; Outdoor activity; Walking path
Journal Iranian Journal of Public Health
DOI https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v50i10.7517
Researchers Ehsan Heidarzadeh (First researcher) , mehdi Rezaei (Second researcher) , mohammadreza haghi (Third researcher) , hassan Shabanian (Fourth researcher) , Youngsub Lee (Fifth researcher)

Abstract

Background: Provided that COVID-19 pandemic has led to mental wellbeing disorders for city dwellers, and given that there is a significant association between outdoor activities and mental health, this paper investigated how the frequency of walking during the pandemic contributes to the immediate and subsequent ‘mood’. Methods: A longitudinal data collection method was adopted to verify the ‘mood’ of the participants before and after walking. The survey was conducted with 100 participants in a walking path in Shiraz, Iran, on Jan 2021. The quantitative analysis methods were performed in SPSS to examine the mental wellbeing outcomes of walking in the outdoor walking path when considering the psychological impacts of the pandemic and the quan-tity. Results: The result affirms the positive contribution of walking in the improvement of mental-wellbeing-mood during the pandemic; though, such a mood boost is in a direct relationship with the quantity of the activity with-in a week. Moreover, other factors can play a significant role, including the ‘mood before walking’, and the age of the participants. Conclusion: It is likely that encouraging people to consider walking as their routine activity can lead to several positive consequences on mental wellbeing since walking as a basic outdoor activity during the pandemic can contribute on the mood.