Urban Mind: Using Smartphone Technologies to Investigate the Impact of Nature on Mental Well-Being in Real Time

Abstract

Existing evidence on the beneficial effects of nature on mental health comes from studies using cross-sectional designs. We developed a smartphone-based tool (Urban Mind; www.urbanmind.info) to examine how exposure to natural features within the built environment affects mental well-being in real time. The tool was used to monitor 108 individuals who completed 3013 assessments over a 1-week period. Significant immediate and lagged associations with mental well-being were found for several natural features. These associations were stronger in people with higher trait impulsivity, a psychological measure of one's tendency to behave with little forethought or consideration of the consequences, which is indicative of a higher risk of developing mental-health issues. Our investigation suggests that the benefits of nature on mental well-being are time-lasting and interact with an individual's vulnerability to mental illness. These findings have potential implications from the perspectives of global mental health as well as urban planning and design.

Keywords: ecological momentary assessment; mental health; mental well-being; nature; smartphones.

Figure 1.

Screenshots of the Urban Mind tool.

Figure 2.

Selection of photographs submitted by participants using the Urban Mind tool.

Figure 3.

Associations between momentary mental well-being score in relation to self-reported environmental features adjusted for age, gender, occupational status and mental well-being score over the previous two weeks for different thresholds of completed assessments (>33%, >50%, and >66%). The mean difference (MD) refers to the mean difference in momentary mental well-being score per category increase. The horizontal axis represents the different thresholds from 33%, 50%, and 66%, and the vertical axis represents the MD with 95% confidence interval. See supplemental Table S2 for more details.

Figure 4.

Associations of momentary mental well-being score in relation to self-reported environmental characteristics adjusted for age, gender, occupational status, and mental well-being over the previous two weeks with the use of the MICE procedure. The mean difference (MD) refers to the mean difference in momentary mental well-being score per category increase. The horizontal axis represents the assessments lagged from 0–3, and the vertical axis represents the MD with 95% confidence interval. L0 indicates the impact of a feature of interest on momentary well-being at the time of the first assessment; L1 indicates that the impact of a self-reported environmental feature of interest was still evident after 2 hours and 25 minutes; L2 would indicate that the impact of a feature of interest was still evident after 4 hours and 50 minutes; and L3 would indicate that the impact of a feature of interest was still evident after 7 hours and 15 minutes. See supplemental Table S3 for more details.

Figure 5.

Mental well-being total score versus trait impulsivity score for participants with completed assessments > 50% with the use of random intercept linear models. Group-specific quadratic regression curves are shown for those that responded Yes and for those that responded No/Not sure to the questions “Are you indoors or outdoors?”, “Can you see trees?”, “Do you feel in contact with nature?”, “Can you hear birds singing?”, “Can you see or hear water?”, and “Can you see the sky?”. P-value for interaction term for the question “can you see the sky?” > 0.05. All the other p-values for the interaction terms < 0.05. See supplemental Table S4 for more details.