The payoff for this "treatment" of children, 5 to 18 years old, who participated in a nationwide study, was a significant reduction of symptoms. The study appears in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
"The advantage for green outdoor activities was observed among children living in different regions of the United States and among children living in a range of settings, from rural to large city environments," wrote co-authors Frances E. Kuo and Andrea Faber Taylor. "Overall, our findings indicate that exposure to ordinary natural settings in the course of common after-school and weekend activities may be widely effective in reducing attention deficit symptoms in children."
ADHD is a neurological disorder that affects some 2 million school-aged children, as well as up to 2 to 4 percent of adults, in the United States. Those with ADHD often face serious consequences, such as problems in school and relationships, depression, substance abuse and on-the-job difficulties.
"These findings are exciting," said Kuo, a professor in the departments of natural resources and environmental sciences and of psychology at Illinois.
"I think we're on the track of something really important, something that could affect a lot of lives in a substantial way," she said. "We're on the trail of a potential treatment for a disorder that afflicts one of every 14 children -- that's one or two kids in every classroom."
If clinical trials and additional research confirm the value of exposure to nature for ameliorating ADHD, daily doses of "green time" might supplement medications and behavioral approaches to ADHD, the authors suggest in their conclusion.
Kuo and Faber Taylor, a
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Contact: Jim Barlow, Life Sciences Editor
jebarlow@uiuc.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
27-Aug-2004