Nature’s heart: a scoping review of the impact of nature-based interventions for cardiovascular and metabolic disease

Abstract

Background: With cardiovascular diseases being the leading cause of death globally, affecting an estimated 17.9 million people annually, Nature-Based Interventions (NBIs) offer promising emerging treatments to mitigate the impact of sedentary lifestyles, poor diets, stress, and other risk factors. This scoping review explored the potential benefits of NBIs on cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases such as hypertension or diabetes. Methods: This scoping review adhered to the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, using the APA PsycINFO, Medline, and Scopus databases, and included only peer-reviewed studies in English that focused on non-digital NBIs and cardiovascular or cardiometabolic disease. Results: The literature search included 254 articles, out of which 22 studies were included in the final review. The results indicate that NBIs, such as forest therapy, positively impact indicators of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases such as blood pressure or blood glucose. Conclusions: The results of this scoping review are discussed in the context of policy and practice. Further research on the minimum effective dose and long-term potential of NBIs is required to optimize NBI use as adjunctive therapy.