Walking in Indoor and Outdoor Environments: Effects on Type 2 Diabetes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Walking in Indoor and Outdoor Environments: Pilot Study to Assess Psychological Health Benefits for Type 2 Diabetes
IRAS ID
226701
Contact name
Matthew Fraser
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of the Highlands and Islands
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
Previous research has demonstrated that individuals living with type 2 diabetes can experience feelings of depression, stress and anxiety. However, current diabetes research has largely focused on improvements in physiological outcomes. The present study seeks to investigate whether exercising outdoors, termed 'green exercise' is a viable method for improving the mental wellbeing of people living with type 2 diabetes.
Outdoor exercise has been shown to elicit a number of positive effects on mental health, such as improved self-esteem, greater perception of wellbeing, decreased mood disturbance, improved affective responses and mood as well as reduced feelings of depression and stress. Positive effects on mental parameters have been shown to occur after just five minutes outdoors (Barton and Pretty 2010).
The current study is a within-participants design involving people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the last year in Highland Region. A randomised, counterbalanced design will be adopted where participants are exposed to three different environmental exercise conditions (indoor/outdoor/control). Participants will act as their own control match (reading) to allow the effect of walking in different environments to be analysed. Participants are required to walk for 30-minutes, in two conditions (indoor/outdoor) at a self-selected pace. Participants will be required to fill out four short questionnaires prior to the walk and immediately following the walk. Outdoor walks and reading session (control condition) will take place at the University Campus (An Lochran). Indoor walks will be conducted at Raigmore hospital on a treadmill.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0045
Date of REC Opinion
7 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion