Conference Agenda

Background: Green urban environments under the patronage of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly overlooked to promote a better well-being amongst individuals. Although there is increased literature in studying its contribution to health-enhancing physical activity, evidence in studying its interaction with twenty four-hour movement behavior (sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity) is still lacking.

Objective: This study aims to explore the possible associations between green urban spaces and 24-hrs movement activity through applying digital monitoring to measure movement behavior.

Methods: A systematic scoping review was conducted to examine how digital monitoring tools measure movement behaviors—physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep—in the context of urban green spaces. Literature was searched across databases such as PubMed using keywords including urban green spaces, digital monitoring, wearable technology, accelerometers, mobile health, and 24-hour movement behaviors. Eligible studies encompassed observational, experimental, and review designs focusing on digital technologies applied to these outcomes. After removing 17 duplicates, 53 articles were screened against predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulting in 22 studies retained for final analysis.

Implications: This study explores the relevance of considering urban context in research on associations between urban features and 24-hour movement through digital monitoring. This raises the potential of positive use of technology to better optimize and position urban planning with health-promotion and equity-focused HEPA decisions.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to determine how much the subjective well-being, sleep quality, and general health status and work capacity of individuals who participated an 8-week exercise program change, and whether the changes depend on the training environment and gender.

Methods: The study involved 47 adults (29 women and 18 men), with an average age of 41.94±6.911, of whom 25 exercised in green areas and 22 on city streets. The World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and The Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) were used to collect data. Participants were given an exercise program for 8 weeks that required them to exercise at a moderate intensity for at least 30 minutes, 3 times a week. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyse the results.

Results: The WHO-5 and PSQI scores did not change significantly (p>0.05) over the 8-week period. In the SF-36 health concepts, the repeated measures ANOVA for General Health showed a statistically significant effect of time (F(1, 959.6) = 15.05, p < .001). And for the Energy/Fatigue score, there was an interaction effect of time, training environment, and gender (F(1, 1039) = 7.24, p = .010). There were no statistically significant (p>0.05) changes in the other SF-36 health concepts, and no significant (p>0,05) interactions were observed for gender and environment.

Conclusions: Even 8 weeks of exercise program leads to an improvement in general health in relatively healthy people, and exercise in green areas has a greater effect.

Purpose

Families are the primary setting for making choices that affect well-being and health. By influencing family culture, their physical activity choices in daily routines and parenting practices that support activity, it is possible to promote physical activity across the population.

Description

The Family Physical Activity Barometer was conducted to meet the need for information regarding the physical activity habits of Finnish families and the factors influencing them. This 2025 Barometer, a continuation of the 2021 study, surveyed 1,220 Finnish families nationwide via an internet panel. It was carried out in cooperation with The Outdoor Association of Finland and Taloustutkimus (Economic research), for the needs of the Families on the Move, which is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Results

Finnish families with children broadly engage in diverse forms of self-organized physical activity and mostly outdoors, primarily motivated by the desire to spend time together. Two out of three families participate in self-organized activity at least once a week, 69% for at least an hour per session. Diverse natural areas, pedestrian and bicycle paths, and hiking opportunities have especially boosted joint physical activity for families, with hiking and walking increasing in popularity. However, an increasing number of families cite financial reasons as a challenge to joint physical activity.

Conclusions

The assessment data from the survey is used to guide the development of nationally and locally implemented initiatives, practices, and materials that support families' physically active lifestyles and allows the monitoring of national development.

Purpose: While artificial intelligence (AI) integrates rapidly into mobile health (mHealth) for physical activity (PA), its deployment in urban areas remains under-scrutinised. This scoping review maps AI architectures in mHealth for PA, operationalised theories, system inclusivity, ethical standards, and environmental sustainability.

Methods: Following JBI and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, seven databases were searched for urban, smartphone-based AI systems for adult PA interventions since 2011 (N=2,222). We deploy an AI-assisted pipeline on local servers. For rigorous validation at title/abstract screening stage, a human-screened 10% calibration sample (n=223; inter-rater reliability PABAK=0.53) underwent expert adjudication, driving 20 iterations of prompt optimization (RISEN framework). A fully unseen 5% test sample (n=110; PABAK=0.75) validated inference performance, achieving PABAK of 0.86, 100.0% (95% CI 78.20-100%) sensitivity, and 91.6% (95% CI 84.10-96.30%) specificity, saving 98% of human screening time. This calibrate-test architecture will be repeated for full-text screening and data extraction stages – final analyses in April 2026. Accuracy, time savings, and resource usage are logged for each stage; data screening specific metric is concordance (95% CI) – final analyses in April 2026. Targeted citation searching ensures saturation.

Results: Human written findings will detail: (1) AI architectures for PA assessment and promotion (e.g., passive sensing, hyper-personalised feedback); (2) encoding of psychosocial determinants within algorithms; and (3) inclusivity considerations, ethical compliance, and sustainability levers (e.g., on-device computing).

Conclusions: Methodologically, this review demonstrates a resource-efficient AI screening pipeline. Practically, it provides a foundational evidence map to align future urban mHealth PA interventions with Planetary Health and ethical standards.

Purpose:
Climate change often forces vulnerable groups to adopt coping strategies, which also increase risk of social isolation and physical inactivity. To mitigate this, comprehensive transformations at multiple levels are necessary. In this transdisciplinary, participatory study, we aimed at identifying need-based changes of the physical and social neighbourhood to foster physical activity, health and climate resilience among older adults.

Methods:
We applied standardized questionnaires (e.g. ALPHA), walking tour interviews and further participatory methods, such as a serious game, chatty bench and a rating of available measures with older adults (aged > 59 years) from two Austrian municipalities. Data on self-rated health, climate impacts, adaptation strategies, quality of neighborhoods, needs and ideas for change were gathered and analysed using regression modelling and qualitative content analysis.

Results:
Overall, 143 older adults (mean age 79 years) completed questionnaires, and 30 took part in participatory activities. Needs identified included insufficient infrastructure (such as green space and sheltered areas), barriers to social activities during extreme weather, and lack of awareness of local initiatives. Solutions proposed included improving public transport, expanding climate-adapted green spaces, fostering community events, collaborating with educational institutions, and promoting reporting of infrastructural deficits.

Conclusions:
Our findings underscore the importance of a multi-level-transformation to promote health, physical activity and climate resilience in older adults. The identified needs and strategies should be integrated into (local) climate action to promote (health-related) targets (e.g., Sustainable Development Goals) and equity.

Funding: This study was supported by the funding of FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency; grant number: FO999904587).

Background and aims

Optimal sleep patterns are essential for children’s health and development. This study aimed to investigate the effect of attending outdoor versus conventional kindergarten on objectively measured nocturnal sleep duration.

Methods

Data was collected from 134 children in five kindergartens in the Copenhagen area, who were alternating between outdoor and conventional settings. Nocturnal sleep duration was measured using accelerometers over one week in the outdoor setting and one week in the conventional setting, respectively. In this within-subject design, differences in nocturnal sleep duration were analyzed using a paired t-test. Data from 92 children were included in the analysis.

Results

No statistically significant overall difference in nocturnal sleep duration was observed between the two settings. However, results were modified by individual kindergartens, as two kindergartens showed significantly shorter nocturnal sleep duration in the outdoor setting (p=0.0003 and p=0.0001) and one kindergarten showed significantly longer nocturnal sleep duration in the outdoor setting (p=0.0005), while there was no difference between settings in the remaining two kindergartens.

Conclusions
The results underscore the complexity of how children’s daily environment influence their sleep patterns, and further exploring of these environmental factors could create important knowledge to understand ways to enhance and promote child health.

Physical inactivity is a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases and death worldwide. Recent evidence has demonstrated the various benefits of nature exposure and nature relatedness (NR) on human health. Natural environments have also been shown to promote physical activity (PA). The aim of this study was to explore the associations between NR and total leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) in adults.

The study population included individuals from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 who participated in follow-up data collection via postal questionnaire and clinical examinations at age 33 years (n = 1995). LTPA was self-reported with questions about the frequency and duration of light and moderate to vigorous (MVPA) physical activities during leisure time. Weekly LTPA was calculated by multiplying the duration of light PA and MVPA by intensity in METs (metabolic equivalent of task) (light PA = 3 METs and MVPA = 5 METs). Association between NR and LTPA was analyzed with multiple linear regression analysis.

The mean weekly total LTPA of the participants was 993 (95% CI 961, 1024) MET-minutes. The mean NR score was 29.7 (SD 5.4). In the unadjusted model, NR (β = 27, CI 95% 22, 32) was positively associated with LTPA. After adjusting for smoking and waist circumference, NR (β = 25, CI 95% 18, 31) remained a significant determinant of LTPA.

Nature relatedness was positively associated with self-reported total leisure-time physical activity. This information could be utilized by strengthening nature relatedness to promote physical activity of adults.

Background: Access to green and blue spaces has been linked to physical activity (PA) in older children and adults, but evidence is limited in early childhood using objective measures of both PA and residential natural features.

Purpose: This study examined associations between natural landscape features and PA and sedentary time in early childhood.

Methods: Cross-sectional data were drawn from 917 children aged 3–4 years in the SUNRISE Finland study. PA and sedentary time were assessed with ActiGraph accelerometers for seven days. Natural features (forests, fields, waters, swamps) within 100, 300, 500 and 1000 m buffers around homes were quantified using CORINE land cover data. Linear regression analysed associations with light (LPA), moderate (MPA) and vigorous (VPA) PA and sedentary time.

Results: Associations between residential natural features and PA/sedentary time were generally weak. Within 100 m, swamps were positively associated with VPA (β=0.50, 95% CI 0.09–0.91) and waters with sedentary time (β=1.95, 95% CI 0.02–3.88). In larger buffers, forests within 1000 m were positively associated with LPA (β=0.36, 95% CI 0.07–0.65) and waters with VPA (β=0.04, 95% CI 0.01–0.07). Associations differed by urbanicity, with more significant relationships among rural children, particularly for forests and swamps.

Conclusion: Residential natural features showed limited, context-dependent associations with children’s PA and sedentary time. Forests in a wider home radius may support LPA, while nearby features (e.g., fields or swamps) may support VPA. Findings may inform early childhood health promotion and urban planning.

Support/Funding Source: Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation