The Benefits of Nature for Mood and Cognition in Persons With and Without Parkinson's Disease

September 15, 2025 updated by: Alice Cronin-Golomb, Boston University Charles River Campus
This online study aims to explore the benefits of nature for mood and cognition in persons with and without Parkinson's disease. For the purpose of this survey, "natural environment" refers to places that primarily consist of natural elements, such as vegetation, water bodies, and landscapes. This includes greenspaces (such as parks, gardens, neighborhood streets lined with trees, forests, or nature reserves) bluespaces (such as next to beaches, lakes, rivers, ponds, or waterfronts), and desert regions, among others.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

To participate in this online study, you will need an email address, and a smartphone or laptop/desktop with internet access. If you are eligible to participate, you will be sent a link to an online survey (Qualtrics). We will ask questions about demographic and health information, followed by questions about exercise habits, exposure to natural environments (including greenspaces and bluespaces, among others), and questionnaires assessing mood, motivation, cognition, sleep, stress, quality of life, and related functions. The survey should take roughly 20-25 minutes to complete. This is an observational study only, and not an interventional study.

Compensation: A $15 Amazon gift card will be offered to those who complete the survey all the way through with good effort.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

97

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02215
        • Vision and Cognition Laboratory, Boston University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Persons with and without Parkinson's disease volunteering for an online study

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

For persons with Parkinson's disease:

  • Participants must be at least 40 years old
  • Have a diagnosis of idiopathic PD
  • Be proficient English speakers
  • Have functional vision
  • Have internet access, and access to a smartphone/laptop/desktop

For persons without Parkinson's disease:

  • Participants must be healthy middle-aged and older adults, with no diagnosis of neurological/neurodegenerative conditions
  • Participants must be at least 40 years old
  • Be proficient English speakers
  • Have functional vision
  • Have internet access, and access to a smartphone/laptop/desktop

Exclusion Criteria (both groups):

  • Diagnosis of dementia
  • Poor vision (non-functional range)
  • Lack of access to internet or to a smartphone/ laptop/desktop computer.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Persons with Parkinson's disease (PwPD)
Individuals with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease
Persons without Parkinson's disease
Healthy middle-aged and older adults

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Parkinson's Disease Sleep Scale-2
Time Frame: Baseline
Assesses sleep and nocturnal disturbances in Parkinson's disease. Maximum score: 60. Higher scores indicate more frequent sleep disturbances.
Baseline
Parkinson's Anxiety Scale (PAS)
Time Frame: Baseline
Assesses the severity of anxiety symptoms in persons with Parkinson's disease. Maximum score:48. Higher scores indicate more severe anxiety.
Baseline
NIH NeuroQoL measures
Time Frame: Baseline
Assesses health-related quality of life in adults with neurological disorders. Higher scores on the sub-scales indicate worse outcomes.
Baseline
Nature Connection Index
Time Frame: Baseline
Assesses the extent to which people feel connected to nature.
Baseline
Perceived Restorativeness Scale
Time Frame: Baseline
Assesses the extent to which particular environments have restorative qualities. Higher scores indicate greater perceived restorativeness.
Baseline
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D)
Time Frame: Baseline
Assesses depressive symptoms in the general population. Maximum score:60. Higher scores indicate more severe depression.
Baseline
Perceived Stress Scale
Time Frame: Baseline
Assesses how different situations affect feelings and perception of stress. Maximum score: 40. Higher scores indicate higher perceived stress.
Baseline
Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire - 8 (PDQ-8)
Time Frame: Baseline
Assesses Parkinson's disease-specific health-related quality of life. Maximum Score: 32. Higher scores indicate worse quality of life.
Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Boston University Charles River Campus

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Alice Cronin-Golomb, PhD, Boston University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 12, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 31, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

July 31, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 26, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 26, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

July 3, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 19, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 15, 2025

Last Verified

August 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 7175E

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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