Restoring attention in pregnancy: the natural environment.

Full Abstract

The purpose of this quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was to test whether regularly spending time in the natural environment would improve concentration for women in the third trimester of pregnancy, a time when women rely on their ability to concentrate in order to prepare for birth and parenting. Several measures requiring concentration were administered before an intervention that included spending 120 minutes each week in restorative activities involving nature. When posttest measures were collected women in the intervention group had signficantly fewer errors compared to the control group. Other measures did not reveal significant differences. These results suggest that encouraging women to spend time in activities that involve nature and designing health care environments to incorporate nature may help pregnant women improve their ability to concentrate and reduce errors at a time when they have many demands on their time and attention.

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Author information

Author/s: Stark, Mary Ann (MA);

Affiliation: Bronson School of Nursing, Western Michigan University, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Comparative Study; Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Clinical nursing research (Clin Nurs Res), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Aug; vol 12 (issue 3) : pp 246-65

Dates: Created 2003/08/15; Completed 2003/09/15; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12918649, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Attention
Environment
Female
Humans

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