ABSTRACT

In Japan, older people are expected to comprise 30% of the population as early as 2025. We hypothesized that visiting a zoo or aquarium might be good for their health, compared with visiting a nearby park. We conducted two studies with older Japanese participants to compare the psychological and physical effects of visiting a zoo or aquarium with those of visiting a park. In these studies, we administered the Profile of Mood States-Brief questionnaire and measured blood pressure, pulse, and salivary hormones before and after visits. In the first study, 30 participants visited a zoo, a park, and an aquarium on separate days. They also participated in a video-watching experiment as a control. The visitors’ cortisol and/or blood pressure fell significantly (p < 0.05) after visiting the zoo and park. Also, mood improved on a few scales during the zoo visit. Visiting the park had almost the same health benefits as visiting the zoo. To clarify the difference between the two, in the second study, we recruited new older volunteers and assessed changes in salivary oxytocin and cortisol during zoo and park visits. Oxytocin increased significantly (p < 0.05) and cortisol decreased during visits to the zoo, and post-visit oxytocin levels were lower for park visits than zoo visits.

摘要

在日本，早在2025年，老年人预计将占人口的30％。我们假设，与参观附近的公园相比，参观动物园或水族馆可能对他们的健康有益。我们与年龄较大的日本参与者进行了两项研究，以比较参观动物园或水族馆与参观公园的心理和生理影响。在这些研究中，我们管理了情绪状态简介调查表，并在探访前后对他们的血压，脉搏和唾液激素进行了测量。在第一项研究中，有30名参与者分别在不同的日子访问了动物园，公园和水族馆。他们还作为对照参加了视频观看实验。访客的皮质醇和/或血压显着下降（p <0.05）。此外，在动物园参观期间，情绪在一定程度上得到了改善。参观公园与参观动物园几乎具有相同的健康益处。为了弄清两者之间的差异，在第二项研究中，我们招募了新的老年志愿者，并评估了动物园和公园参观期间唾液催产素和皮质醇的变化。 参观动物园期间，催产素显着增加（p <0.05），皮质醇下降，公园参观的催产素水平低于动物园参观。