Prescribing Time in Nature for Human Health and Well-Being: Study Protocol for Tailored Park Prescriptions

eHealth technologies offer an efficient method to integrate park prescriptions into clinical practice by primary health care (PHC) providers to help patients improve their health via tailored, nature-based health behavior interventions. This paper describes the protocol of the GoalRx Prescription Intervention (GPI) which was designed to leverage community resources to provide tailored park prescriptions for PHC patients.

The GPI study was designed as a 3-arm, multi-site observational study. We enrolled low-income, rural adults either at-risk of or living with hypertension or diabetes (n = 75) from Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in two counties in North Carolina, USA into the 3-month intervention. Eligible participants self-selected to receive (1) a tailored park prescription intervention; (2) a tailored home/indoor PA prescription intervention; or (3) a healthy eating prescription (with no PA prescription beyond standard PA counseling advice that is already routinely provided in PHC) as the comparison group. The GPI app paired patient health data from the electronic health record with stated patient preferences and triggered app-integrated SMS motivation and compliance messaging directly to the patient. Patients were assessed at baseline and at a 3-month follow-up upon the completion of the intervention. The primary outcome (mean difference in weekly physical activity from baseline (T0) to post-intervention (T1) as measured by the Fitbit Flex 2) was assessed at 3 months. Secondary outcomes included assessment of the relationship between the intervention and biological markers of health, including body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, HbA1c or available glucose test (if applicable), and a depression screen score using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9. Secondary outcomes also included the total number of SMS messages sent, number of SMS messages responded to, number of SMS messages ignored, and opt-out rate.

The goal was to create a protocol utilizing eHealth technologies that addressed the specific needs of rural low-income communities and fit into the natural rhythms and processes of the selected FQHC clinics in North Carolina. This protocol offered a higher standard of health care by connecting patients to their PHC teams and increasing patient motivation to make longer-lasting health behavior changes.