Request for help with PhD Research

[ClaireW]

Hello,

I am posting this message with approval from the Forum staff.

I am a PhD researcher at the University of Essex and am writing to invite you to participate in some research that I am conducting. My research investigates the relationship between participation in green exercise (physical activity whilst in the presence of elements of nature) and depressive symptoms in the UK general population. This research is important to understand if green exercise can be used as a healthcare intervention for people with depressive symptoms.

Participation in this research involves completion of an online survey and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. The survey asks some questions about you, the type of physical activity you like to do and why, and about how you have been feeling recently. The survey is completed anonymously and you will not be asked for any information that may identify you. All responses will be kept confidential and stored securely. This research has been reviewed and received ethical approval from the University of Essex ethics committee.

If you are interested in finding out more about this study, or participating, please visit https://essex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form ... JcHRB1cYS1

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me by email at cwicks@essex.ac.uk, or my lead supervisor, Dr Leanne Andrews at landre@essex.ac.uk

Thank you very much for considering participating in my research! Best wishes, Claire.

[djnotts]

I would have contributed, BUT "Unfortunately, anyone with a chronic physical health condition, such as heart disease, is not eligible to participate." This seems a little odd to me. I do not suffer from depression, but I do get depressed by failing health (COPD most relevant in context of getting out and about). Cycling as "green exercise" is surely of importance in maintaining mental and physical health as long as possible?

[LittleGreyCat]

"Chronic" condition covers a multitude of sins.
Asthma,T1 and T2 Diabetes for a start.
CKD (as discussed in another thread).
Piles, I assume.
Arthritis?

I'm sure that there is an enormously long list of ongoing (therefore chronic) as opposed to short term (therefore acute) conditions which can be a nuisance to manage but which don't impact on the ability to cycle.

In fact, with many of the chronic conditions exercise such as cycling is recommended to increase both fitness and mood.
I know that I feel a lot more cheerful after a cycle ride.

So I don't really see why having a chronic condition should rule you out.

[drossall]

I would have contributed, BUT "Unfortunately, anyone with a chronic physical health condition, such as heart disease, is not eligible to participate." This seems a little odd to me. I do not suffer from depression, but I do get depressed by failing health (COPD most relevant in context of getting out and about). Cycling as "green exercise" is surely of importance in maintaining mental and physical health as long as possible?

I've had heart surgery this year too. My guess is that the instance of depressive illness in those of us in this position is higher than in the population in general - I've had no issues to date, but it's been mentioned as something that can result. So, excluding such conditions from both any cohort who do not exercise, and those who do, will make it easier to measure the effect of exercising.

One possibility is that those who exercise are less prone to heart conditions (but not immune, as we know), so you'd get more such conditions in the non-exercising group, and hence more depression, which would confuse any benefits of exercise in preventing depression with the benefits of exercise in preventing the chronic conditions themselves!

It's quite hard work in science, making sure that you are measuring what you really intend to measure, and not something else by mistake.

Of course it would be feasible to do a separate study on those who do have chronic conditions...

[ClaireW]

Hello, I just wanted to thank people for their interest in my study and for the comments above. I appreciate that many people do use green exercise to help with the physical and mental health symptoms of chronic health conditions. In this study it was decided to focus on a healthy general population and, as drossal mentioned, in research it is important to ensure that your results are not affected by other factors, such as the presence of physical health conditions in this instance. I sincerely apologise for any offence caused by this exclusion criteria, this is not my intent. If anyone wishes to discuss this, or has any concerns about my study, please do not hesitate to contact me at my email address above. Best wishes, Claire.

[djnotts]

No offence taken(by me at least!). And I do understand the reasoning behind the rigour of the target population. Excluding those with chronic health issues e.g. in my case COPD will skew the study to the under, say, 50s, but I'm sure that this will be taken into account.

[horizon]

The aim of this research is to investigate whether there is a relationship between participation in green exercise and depressive symptoms in the UK population. We are also interested whether a person’s relationship with nature influences the strength of this relationship and whether motivation for engaging in green exercise might also be an important factor in this relationship.

Good luck with the research (the quote above is from the survey). However, my feeling was that it will be extraordinarily difficult to untangle cause and effect (which is presumably why you are doing the study). On the one hand it is self-evident to most people that a walk in the country is helpful for one's mental state, on the other that people with severe depression might not benefit. One thing I would like clarified though is whether the research has any role in the protection of green space and opportunities for green exercise. After all, this is a cycling forum and people are only too well aware that green spaces are constantly under threat. I am also concerned that for children it is a particular issue, involving everything from overuse of screens, long indoor school hours, being transported everywhere by car and lack of road safety for cycling.

[landsurfer]

There seems to be a lot of us cyclists with heart disease .... maybe there should be some research into why cyclists seem to have such a high proportion of heart disease ?

[Cyril Haearn]

We are mostly middle-aged or older white males
Many of us have diseases, prostrate, heart, arteries, bowel, that we do not know about

[landsurfer]

We are mostly middle-aged or older white males
Many of us have diseases, prostrate, heart, arteries, bowel, that we do not know about

Thats it !
I'm going to identify as a middle aged or older black male .....
Maybe i'll get a better range of illness and disease ..

[axel_knutt]

There seems to be a lot of us cyclists with heart disease .... maybe there should be some research into why cyclists seem to have such a high proportion of heart disease ?

Depends whether you're using a layman's definition of heart disease or a cardiologist's. A history of chronic endurance training is already known to increase the risk of arrhythmia, and is the subject of ongoing research, but a cardiologist would be quick to tell you that arrhythmia is a heart condition, not heart disease.

[landsurfer]

There seems to be a lot of us cyclists with heart disease .... maybe there should be some research into why cyclists seem to have such a high proportion of heart disease ?

Depends whether you're using a layman's definition of heart disease or a cardiologist's. A history of chronic endurance training is already known to increase the risk of arrhythmia, and is the subject of ongoing research, but a cardiologist would be quick to tell you that arrhythmia is a heart condition, not heart disease.

Long QT syndrome me ..... bummer .....

[ClaireW]

In response to horizon, the limitation with surveys is that you cannot determine cause and effect, you can only really establish relationships between things. However, I am planning on using my results to inform a future study which will investigate whether green exercise can be used to help reduce depressive symptoms. Hopefully, my research findings will be published and can provide evidence for the importance of protecting our green space and ensuring that everyone has access to adequate green space.

And thank you for your good wishes

[NUKe]

Filled out just a couple of comments.
1 no option for living with a partner children under and over 16 but could use other and description
2 gardening yes an activity but unlike say walking and Cycling its difficult to quantify exercise as sometimes its quite heavy work and sometimes its just pruning or picking. its also very seasonal in effort Not really sure how you can deal with that.

3 wont the fact you talk about depressive illnesses skew the results by drawing people who do perceive themselves in this way and maybe frightening off people who don't ?