Feature

Discovering the impacts of urban walking on well-being in Africa and Asia

A novel study by SEI researchers unveils the psychophysiological responses to walking in the cities of Nakuru, Kenya and Udon Thani, Thailand.

Jana Busch, Steve Cinderby / Published on 2 October 2023

Imagine strolling through the bustling streets of a city, experiencing the sights, sounds, and scents of a unique urban environment. But have you ever wondered how these experiences impact your well-being? A team of researchers led by SEI York’s Steve Cinderby embarked on a journey to uncover the psychophysiological responses to walking in urban settings in Nakuru, Kenya, and Udon Thani, Thailand. Their study, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 2023, paves the way for a deeper understanding of how our surroundings influence our health and well-being.

A women with hat in a busy street in Bangkok, Thailand. — A woman wearing a hat walks down a market street in Thailand.

Photo: Artur Debat / Getty Images.

A new path: the study’s unique approach

The study stands out as the first of its kind to compare the effects of walking in urban environments between an African and Asian city, specifically Nakuru and Udon Thani. The researchers recruited a total of 237 participants—122 in Nakuru and 115 in Udon Thani— from local universities.

To capture a nuanced understanding of how urban walking influences well-being, the study employed a comprehensive set of tools, blending subjective surveys with objective physiological data that studied:

Acute mood: before and after their walks, participants filled out a short survey based on the Mood Adjective Check List (MACL). This helped capture self-reported hedonic tone (your experience of pleasure), perceived mental stress, and arousal levels, offering a snapshot of the participants’ mood and psychological stress.
Sub-chronic stress and well-being: to delve deeper into the participants’ general state of well-being, the study employed two additional subjective measures:
1. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) evaluated participants’ feelings of unpredictability and stress over the past 30 days.
2. The Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS) asked participants to rate a series of statements reflecting their mental well-being over the last weeks.
Physiological stress: to capture real-time data, participants were equipped with smartwatches that monitored their heart rate variability (HRV) throughout their walk. HRV is a reliable indicator of physiological stress and provides an objective measure to complement the subjective surveys.

This consistent methodology across different geographical settings provided valuable insights into the psychophysiological responses to urban walking. The participants walked a predefined route passing through built environments, market spaces and green parks.

Nakuru and Udon Thani walking route map. Participants walked the indicated routes starting either in at the market or in the park areas. — Udon Thani (left) and Nakuru (right) walking route maps. Participants walked the indicated routes passing through built environments, markets and green parks.

Source: Neale, Boukhechba & Cinderby, 2023.

Key findings: a journey of surprises and insights

The study ventured into new territory by examining how walking in the cities of Nakuru and Udon Thani affects both mind and body. Contrary to findings from previous studies¹ ² in Europe and North America, the anticipated benefits of walking, irrespective of the local environment, were not always present in these cities. Several noteworthy insights emerged from the in-depth examination of psychological and physiological stress in relation to urban walking:

1. Pre-walk feelings predict post-walk mood

The study revealed a straightforward but important insight: your mood before a walk is a strong indicator of how you’ll feel afterward. To put it simply, if you’re in a good mood before you start walking (indicated by high levels of what researchers call “hedonic tone” and “arousal”), you’re likely to continue feeling good. Conversely, if you’re stressed before the walk—as measured by specific stress scales like the PSS—you’ll probably still feel stressed when you’re done.

2. Short-term mood boosts for chronically stressed people

Participants with higher chronic stress, compared to their peers, appeared to experience more immediate benefits from walking. In Udon Thani, women with elevated stress levels reported an improvement in their mood following the walk, although their long-term stress levels remained constant. Notably, this immediate mood improvement was not observed in the group of chronically stressed men in Udon Thani. In Nakuru, individuals of both genders with higher long-term stress noted an uplift in mood post-walk, but their chronic stress levels were unaffected. The findings imply that while the walks were effective in temporarily enhancing mood, particularly for those with elevated long-term stress, they fell short in reducing chronic stress levels. This points to the need for studying local stress factors to see how short walks might offer more lasting stress relief.

3. Psychological vs. physiological responses in urban walking

Long-term stress, regional context and cultural preferences appear to influence subjective psychological outcomes (how your mood is during the walk) but don’t seem to impact physiological responses (how your body reacts during a walk) in the same way. Real-time HRV analyses in both Nakuru and Udon Thani revealed the beneficial effects of nature by demonstrating reduced physiological stress when walking in parks, as opposed to other built environments. However, the acute mood remained rather unaffected. Even more intriguingly, HRV data also showed lower physiological stress levels when participants traversed town markets in both cities. In Udon Thani, concluding the walk in the market area seemed to elevate participants’ mood. In contrast, although walking through the market in Nakuru also reduced physiological stress, it did not have the same mood-boosting effect as observed in Udon Thani.

Over the shoulder view of a women in a green park, measuring the heart rate on her smartwatch. — Over the shoulder view of a women in a green park, measuring her heart rate on a smartwatch.

Photo: d3sign/ Getty Images

Several underlying factors may contribute to the observed outcomes. Previous research has indicated that restorative effects might be dependent on individuals’ feeling of how crowded spaces are³, and our own work has shown that concerns about crime and traffic in the market area in Nakuru, which may inhibit a positive mood shift there⁴ ⁵.

The study certainly revealed some unusual findings regarding subjective mood, suggesting potential cultural nuances in the perception of urban environments may influence walking experiences differently in the Global South compared to the Global North. Yet, the findings also warrant cautious interpretation, as they are based on snapshots of subjective and physiological data, and Western-developed scales were used in non-Western settings.

Two men wearing surgical masks looking on their phones. — Participants comparing heart rate variability (HRV) results on their phones.

Photo: Howard Cambridge/ SEI.

The road ahead: implications for urban planning and public health

This novel study holds significant relevance for city planners and policymakers as it sheds light on the psychophysiological responses to urban walking in Nakuru and Udon Thani. By better understanding the effects of urban spaces on well-being, these key stakeholders can make more informed decisions on how to create healthier environments for their residents. This has further policy implications at local, regional and national levels relating to improving health and well-being, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (especially #3 Good Health and Well-being and #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities) not only at these locations but also across the Global South.

Our findings emphasise the value of green spaces and their role in maintaining well-being. As cities continue to grow, it is crucial for city planners to preserve existing, and incorporate new sociable green and built spaces, like parks and squares, to enable social interactions

Steve Cinderby, Senior Research Fellow at SEI York

The study also highlights the need for further research on how cultural, environmental, and social factors contribute to the observed geographical differences in stress responses and mood states. As cities continue to rapidly urbanise, such insights will become increasingly important in shaping effective public health policies and urban planning strategies.

Group of people walking through greenspace in Udon Thani. — A group of people walking through green space in Udon Thani.

Photo: Diane Archer / SEI.

A call to action

This study invites us all to reflect on the impact of our surroundings on our health and well-being. As we continue to navigate the urban landscapes of our rapidly changing world, it is crucial to foster a deeper understanding of how our environment shapes our experiences. By doing so, we can work towards creating healthier cities for all.

Are you inspired to learn more about the relationship between urban environments and well-being? Read the journal article about this work.

Notes

Celis-Morales, C.A., Lyall, D.M., Welsh, P., Anderson, J., Steell, L., Guo, Y., Maldonado, R., Mackay, D.F., Pell, J.P., Sattar, N. & Gill, J.M., (2017). Association between active commuting and incident cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mortality: prospective cohort study. bmj, 357, j1456.

Gidlow, C.J., Jones, M.V., Hurst, G., Masterson, D., Clark-Carter, D., Tarvainen, M.P., Smith, G. & Nieuwenhuijsen, M. (2016). Where to put your best foot forward: Psycho-physiological responses to walking in natural and urban environments. Journal of environmental psychology, 45, 22-29.

Nordh, H., Alalouch, C., & Hartig, T. (2011). Assessing restorative components of small urban parks using conjoint methodology. Urban forestry & urban greening, 10(2), 95-103.

Cinderby, S., Archer, D., Mehta, V. K., Neale, C., Opiyo, R., Pateman, R.M., Muhoza, C., Adelina, C. & Tuhkanen, H. (2021). Assessing inequalities in wellbeing at a neighbourhood scale in low-middle-income-country secondary cities and their implications for long-term livability. Frontiers in sociology, 6, 729453.

Tuhkanen, H., Cinderby, S., De Bruin, A., Wikman, A., Adelina, C., Archer, D., & Muhoza, C. (2022). Health and wellbeing in cities-Cultural contributions from urban form in the Global South context. Wellbeing, Space and Society, 3, 100071.