Enhance Satisfaction/Quality of Life

Liu and colleagues evaluated the implications of scenting office spaces.  They studied the “effects of ambient bergamot scent on the stress levels of office workers by exposing them to the scent while stressors persisted as the workers continued to work on the office tasks. . . . The change in heart rate variability revealed that bergamot scent increased stress among males but not for females. The reported pleasantness and comfort followed the same trend.

Rosa and teammates probed links between gardening and depression and their findings should support developing and maintaining spaces for gardening.  The team conducted a literature review and learned that “some horticultural interventions plus usual care (i.e., continuing normal routine for healthy people or treatment for unhealthy ones) may reduce depressive symptoms more than usual care alone, with most studies suggesting a moderate . . . or large effect. . .

Lee and Yoon studied the effects of natural design elements on the experiences of people waiting in healthcare emergency departments.  They report their “findings offer empirical evidence for the positive impact of including natural elements in these waiting areas. We created four high-fidelity virtual environments that incorporated natural elements in three ways, i.e., the presence of plants, the use of nature images and natural materials, and a combination of those two, in addition to a controlled environment without natural elements.