Hill Walking and Mental Health

[matt0129081]

Alongside hill walking I also work at Teesside University in the psychology department. One of my doctoral students, Hannah Shaw, and I are conducting a study into hill walking and mental health. We have permission from our ethics committee and also the owners of WalkHighlands to post our study advert for our study here and we would be very grateful if you would consider completing the study:

Do you think hill walking benefits your mental health? Have you got a hill walk planned or been on one recently?
I am conducting research into the benefits of hill walking on mental health, specifically focusing on whether certain aspects of a hill walk are more beneficial. The study will also look at the prevalence of mental health problems in different types of walkers.
The research is in the form of a questionnaire which takes around 10 minutes to complete, and needs to be completed within 48 hours of a hill walk.
If you have a hill walked planned, it would be great if you could take the time to complete our questionnaire after this – we need as many people to take part as possible!

Please follow the link to find out more information about the study and access the questionnaire.
https://teesside.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/hill-walking-and-mental-health

[simon-b]

Hillwalking definitely helps both mental and physical health. I haven't climbed a hill in the last 48 hours so don't qualify for the survey, but the health benefits of hillwalking do need to be well represented when policy decisions regarding the environment and access to the hills are made. For example, a lot of ideal terrain for walking is grazed pasture land. This is one of the reasons a balanced view needs to taken regarding ruminants vs. forestry vs. windfarms vs. wilderness, etc. All have their parts to play in a sensible approach to quality of life and the environment.

[WalkWithWallace]

Exercise in general helps with mental health, hill walking has the added bonus of fantastic views and the feeling of achievement when reaching the summit.