Research evidence suggests that engaging with nature can promote health by reducing stress, improving cognition, fostering social connectivity, and supporting healthy behaviours such as physical activity, healthy eating, and pro-environmental practices. Yet there are empirical data gaps about how community members engage with nature in their local context, what facilitates or inhibits access to outdoor places , and how health practitioners and decision-makers use evidence on the linkages between health and nature to inform their work. Using a participatory, community-based research design and adapting photographic methods from the fields of ecological restoration and health care, this dissertation study addressed these critical gaps. The study was conducted in rural Nova Scotia, a site that offered considerable access to natural environments. In phase one, an aggregate group of parents with young children (n=8) participated in photo narration and photo elicitation interviews and focus groups to explore how they engage with nature to promote their individual and family health. In phase two, local practitioners and decision-makers (n=16) engaged in photo elicitation focus groups to discuss and expand the analytic themes from phase one and to examine how they use evidence on the health benefits of engaging with nature to design community-based health promotion interventions. Critical analytic themes emerged from the dialectical analysis of data from both phases and offered insight into the value of restorative places and experiences in nature, the barriers and facilitators to connecting with the natural world, the ties between engaging with nature and ecological citizenship, and the proposed shifts in practice and policy norms and governance processes needed across sectors and citizen groups to simultaneously promote and protect the health of people and the natural world. The findings provided a unique view of ecologically-sound everyday access to restorative outdoor places as critical to the promotion of health. This paper-based dissertation details study findings and implications for research, practice, and policy through five manuscripts that together confer conceptual, evidence-informed, and analytic views of nature-based health promotion and provide insight into rigorous participatory photographic research methods for community engagement in mutual generation and exchange of knowledge.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1459 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Hansen-Ketchum, Patricia Anne |
| Contributors | Dr. Patricia Marck, Faculty of Nursing, Dr. Linda Reutter, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Dr. Elizabeth Halpenny, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, Dr. Kaysi Kushner, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Dr. Renee Lyons, Bridgepoint Chair in Complex Chronic Disease Research TD Financial Group Scientific Director, Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation Professor Dalla Lana School of Public Health University of Toronto |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 2260755 bytes, application/pdf |
| Relation | Hansen-Ketchum, P., & Marck, P., Reutter, L. (2009). Engaging with nature to promote health: New directions for nursing research. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(7), 1527-1538., Hansen-Ketchum, P. & Halpenny, E. (2010) Engaging with nature to promote health: Bridging research silos to examine the evidence. Health Promotion International. Advance Access Aug. 26, 2010. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daq053, Hansen-Ketchum, P. (in-press) Engaging with nature in the promotion of health: A cornerstone to ecologically emancipated communities. In L. Hallstroms (Ed.) Environment, Health and Community Development. Vancouver, British Columbia: UBC Press., Hansen-Ketchum, P., Marck, P., Reutter, L., & Halpenny, E. (submitted for review 28 May 2010, reviewer comments received 30July2010, revisions completed 8 September 2010). Strengthening access to restorative places: Findings from a participatory study on engaging with nature in the promotion of health. Health and Place. |
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