Affective Responses in Mountain Hiking

Affective Responses in Mountain Hiking: A Randomized Controlled Trial Focusing on Differences Between Indoor and Outdoor Activity

Using a within-subject design, 42 healthy participants were randomly exposed to three different conditions: outdoor mountain hiking, indoor treadmill walking, and sedentary control situation (3.5 hours each). Measures included the Feeling Scale, Felt Arousal Scale and a Mood Survey Scale. Univariate ANOVAs were used to analyse differences between the conditions.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Affect
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: walking; Device: Treadmill

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 47
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• voluntary participation

Exclusion Criteria:

• pregnancy
• breast-feeding
• chronic or acute diseases (already existing or diagnosed during the study)
• age below 18 and above 70 years
• unable to be physically active assessed by the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (Shephard, Thomas, & Weller, 1991)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Outdoor mountain hiking (M); First part of the intervention: an uphill walking phase on single trails and forest roads in a sparse forest with view on the mountainous region around Innsbruck for 6 km in around 1.5 hours together with the test leader. Regarding the walking intensity, the participants were instructed to choose a "brisk without overspending" pace (average speed: 4 km/h). In the second part of the intervention, the participants were walking downhill on the same track for around 70 minutes back to the starting point to respond to the post-test (average speed: 5.2 km/h).	Behavioral: walking
Active Comparator: Indoor treadmill walking (T); To ensure that all physical parameters were simultaneous to the outdoor mountain hiking condition, the distance, the difference in height, the average inclination of the track, and the time needed for the outdoor mountain hiking situation were measured in a pilot study. First part: uphill walking, inclination: 10%, time: 1.5 hours, and speed: 4 km/h (resulting in 600 m difference in height). In accordance to possible differences in outdoor speed, the participants were allowed to change the treadmill's speed in a small range (3.8 to 4.2 km/h) to adapt to the wording "brisk without overspending". Second part of the intervention contained 70 minutes of level walking on the same treadmills (5.2 km/h, 6km).	Behavioral: walking; Device: Treadmill
No Intervention: Sedentary control condition (C); The sedentary control situation was located in a quiet room at the university with access to computers. The participants were allowed to use the computers, to read, and to talk, but had to remain in a sedentary position. To control for possible differences in affective response due to the daytime, the sedentary control condition contained the same timing of the measurements than the intervention condition. Sociodemographic data were collected for 5 to 10 minutes in this condition using a web-based questionnaire.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change From Baseline Subscales of Mood Survey Scale at 3 Hours	Mood Survey Scale, min: 5, max: 25 higher score: better outcome All Outcome Measures are reported "per intervention", i.e., the data in Arms/Groups reflect the participants of the particular intervention.	baseline and 3 hours
Change From Baseline Feeling Scale at 3 Hours	Feeling Scale, min: -5, max: +5 higher score: better outcome All Outcome Measures are reported "per intervention", i.e., the data in Arms/Groups reflect the participants of the particular intervention.	baseline and 3 hours after baseline
Change From Baseline Felt Arousal Scale at 3 Hours	Felt Arousal Scale, min: 0, max: 6 higher score: better outcome All Outcome Measures are reported "per intervention", i.e., the data in Arms/Groups reflect the participants of the particular intervention.	baseline and 3 hours after baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change From Baseline Blood Pressure at 3 Hours	All Outcome Measures are reported "per intervention", i.e., the data in Arms/Groups reflect the participants of the particular intervention.	baseline and 3 hours
Change From Baseline Heart Rate Variability at 3 Hours	All Outcome Measures are reported "per intervention", i.e., the data in Arms/Groups reflect the participants of the particular intervention.	baseline and 3 hours
Change From Baseline Cortisol at 3 Hours (Saliva Sampling)	All Outcome Measures are reported "per intervention", i.e., the data in Arms/Groups reflect the participants of the particular intervention.	baseline and 3 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Universitaet Innsbruck
• Collaborators: Paracelsus Medical University
• Investigators: Study Director: Martin Kopp, Prof., martin.kopp@uibk.ac.at

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Niedermeier M, Einwanger J, Hartl A, Kopp M. Affective responses in mountain hiking-A randomized crossover trial focusing on differences between indoor and outdoor activity. PLoS One. 2017 May 16;12(5):e0177719. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177719. eCollection 2017.
• Niedermeier M, Grafetstatter C, Hartl A, Kopp M. A Randomized Crossover Trial on Acute Stress-Related Physiological Responses to Mountain Hiking. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017 Aug 11;14(8):905. doi: 10.3390/ijerph14080905.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: May 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): October 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 27, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 2, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): August 3, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 18, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 16, 2022
• Last Verified: May 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: ARMH