Project: The forest – an active preventive health care for children?

Project information

Project manager
Susanne Knutsson
Other project members
Maria Koldestam
Charlotta Håkansson
Financier
Linnéuniversitetet, The Bridge (Linnéuniversitetet, Södra skogsägarna, Ikea), Stiftelsen Seydlitz MP bolagen
Timetable
18 Aug 2025–18 June 2029, with a follow-up on 18 June 2032
Subject
Caring Science (Department of Health and Caring Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences) and Forestry and Wood Technology (Department of Forestry and Wood Technology, Faculty of Technology).
Research groups
Centre of Interprofessional Collaboration within Emergency care (CICE), Hälsa, vårdande och lärande på livsvärldsteoretisk grund (HVL) (webpage in Swedish)
Knowledge Environment
Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Green Sustainable Development

More about the project

Today we know that there are clear connections between health and nature. People feel good in the forest even if they don't think about why and what it can lead to. 200 years ago, 90 percent of people in Sweden lived in the countryside and today it is almost the opposite.

Many of today's city dwellers have lost contact with the forest and thus also miss out on the opportunities of the forest. We know that increased exposure to urban greenery leads to improved mental health, increased physical activity and reduced mortality. We also know that early contact with nature promotes children's development, physical and mental health, and lays the foundation for spending time in nature later in life. Many children today express fatigue, nausea and headaches. An ominous increase in children's sedentary lifestyle can also be seen. Positive effects on children's physical, mental and social development of children having contact with nature, such as experiencing stress, being sick less often, improving mental health, and effects on their emotional control and impulse control, have been measured.

Early contact with nature is maintained as an adult, which can benefit health in both the short and long term. Modern urban living is associated with a sedentary lifestyle and chronic stress, which contributes to an increase in non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and depression. Many of these diseases can be prevented through various investments in environments for physical activity and recreation. Such investments are particularly effective for children because they can affect health throughout the life course. Today, many children lack basic knowledge about the significance of forests in purely environmental, existential, economic/production and health-promoting effects, 2024-08295-01, which also means that children do not have the opportunity to use forests as active preventive health care. It is also important that children are allowed to participate in what concerns them, it provides motivation and well-being. However, it is often adults who decide how children should be. Therefore, it may be important that children are involved in decisions and activities that concern them.

This study is an intervention where the entire project is about different activities related to the forest, together with children and the research team, designing an intervention with the intention of being an active preventive health care for children where knowledge about the forest and its significance economically, environmentally, production, work and health in the present and future is in focus. The intervention can contribute to an interest in the forest, forest management and forestry and an awareness of its importance to humans and thus contribute to active prevention of children's health in the present but also the future by giving them knowledge about the forest and what it can give us at an early stage in life, knowledge that through development can become a sustainable educational package that is integrated into children's schooling continuously and with progression even when the child starts Year 7.

The project means that before the intervention we study and describe children's experiences of what the forest means to them, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The intervention is then developed, which is about knowledge and spending time in and about the forest for children in primary school, Year 2 and then follows them with various activities, at least once a week, which are described in the intervention for Year 6.

The activities will be integrated into the regular school curriculum, so nothing there will change, however, existing teaching will be more located in the forest and based on what is found in the forest, outdoor education. The school is currently structured so that you have the same classmates from Year 1 to Year 6 and then the class is divided. However, the participants will be able to be followed up to Year 9 to see what career path they choose in high school and to follow their health status.

Two classes with approximately the same conditions are needed. One class will participate in the intervention and the other is a control/reference class. The intention is also that the quantitative part, a questionnaire on the importance of the forest, an instrument on well-being and health and an instrument on quality of life will also be given to children of the same age in a class in the following cities: Malmö, Luleå, Gothenburg and Stockholm.

The intention is that the results will contribute to better health and well-being for the children and that they will open their eyes to what the forest can provide, and a curiosity and understanding of how important the forest and its products are.

The hope is also that the children will become more physically active, which will hopefully affect their health and well-being positively, for example. less tired in the afternoon during school hours.

The project is part of the research in the Centre of Interprofessional Collaboration within Emergency care (CICE), Hälsa, vårdande och lärande på livsvärldsteoretisk grund (HVL) (webpage in Swedish) and in the Linnaeus Knowledge Environment Green Sustainable Development.