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Background Medical residents commonly face compassion fatigue, burnout, anxiety, and depression. Studies of nature-based interventions show improved mental and physical health; few focus on healthcare providers.Objective To explore potential benefits of forest bathing for medical residents’ wellbeing.Methods Using the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy’s framework, we piloted a forest bathing intervention among medical residents with pre/post-participation surveys assessing perceptions of mindfulness and psychological wellbeing. Responses were analyzed using a Fisher’s exact test and Student’s t-test for independent samples.Results Fourteen of fifteen participants completed both surveys. We observed significantly improved mindfulness scores and expressions of feeling calm, vital, or creative, as well as a decreased sense of anxiety and depression. Nonsignificant trends towards decreased burnout and irritability were seen.Conclusion This quality improvement pilot demonstrates trends that forest bathing can improve medical residents’ psychological wellbeing and mindfulness. Further exploration of this intervention for healthcare providers is warranted.

Background This Scoping review (ScR) builds upon the 2017 review conducted by Hansen et al which contributed to evidence base shinrin-yoku (SY), also known as forest bathing (FB), has many positive health effects and is becoming a prescribed dose (specific time spent in nature) by health care providers. Practice and research regarding SY, has been historically based in Asian countries with a recent increase in Europe. The need and call for more research worldwide continues to further the evidence of SY as a health promotion modality. Through this ScR the authors identified programmatic components, health information monitored and screened, time spent in nature, geographical regions, trends, and themes in SY research worldwide.Methods Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines we searched across 7 electronic databases for SY or FB research articles from 2017 through 2022. PubMed, CINAHL, PsycInfo, ScienceDirect, SCOPUS, Embase, JSTOR were included due to the interdisciplinary nature of SY or FB research. Each database provided unique strengths ensuring a capture of a wide range of articles. The resulting articles were screened and extracted through Covidence.Results Database searches returned 241 results, with 110 references removed during the deduplication process, 131 were initially screened in the title and abstract review stage. Resulting in 82 unique results deemed relevant and screened in full text. During the final stage of the review, 63 articles met all inclusion criteria and were extracted for data.Conclusions The practice of SY has physiological (PHYS) and psychological (PSYCH) benefits across age groups. Research findings indicate either the natural or the virtual environment (VW) has significant health benefits. Continued research is encouraged globally for short- and long-term health outcomes for all individuals. The connection with nature benefits the mind, body and soul and is supported by Henry David Thoreau’s philosophy: “Our livesneed the relief of where the pine flourishes and the jay still scream.”

Hispanic men who have sex with men (MSM) are at risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections related to high-risk sexual behaviors. The aim of this study was to test a model that predicts the sexual behaviors of Hispanic MSM that is based on an epidemiologic framework. The results of this study provide some important new information regarding the predictors of sexual behaviors among Hispanic MSM. The final model suggests that mental health is a significant predictor of sexual behaviors in this sample. Major implications for the development of interventions to address high-risk sexual behaviors highlight the need for health care providers and researchers to be cognizant of the influence of mental health issues on sexual behaviors.

People with spinal cord injury (SCI) face unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including greater risk of poor COVID-19-related outcomes, increased social isolation, and restricted access to important services. Furthermore, COVID-19 related restrictions have decreased already low levels of physical activity (PA) in this population. Therefore, the purpose of this commentary is to: 1) address the impact of COVID-19 on PA and sedentary behavior (SB) in people with SCI; 2) provide potential SB reduction strategies to guide future research; and 3) provide recommendations to increase PA and reduce SB on behalf of the American College of Sports Medicine Exercise is Medicine (ACSM-EIM) and Healthy Living for Pandemic Event Protection (HL-PIVOT) using a social-ecological model targeting the individual-, social environment-, physical environment-, and policy-level determinants of behavior in people with SCI.