Microbial Colonization
Conditions
Keywords
green areas, nature, microbiome, biodiversity, sequencing
Brief summary
The goal of this study is to understand how visiting green areas affects the human microbiome through microbial transfer. Additionally, the project aims to understand which environmental, health and lifestyle factors can influence these microbiome changes. Participants will visit a green area, provide microbiome samples before and after the visit, and complete questionnaires related to environmental, health, lifestyle and demographic factors.
Detailed description
Several hypotheses propose that the modern surge in immune disorders is related to diminished contact with nature. Specifically, the Biodiversity hypothesis emphasizes that contact with natural environments enriches the human microbiome and is necessary for promoting immune balance. This project aims to investigate whether visiting green areas can contribute to changes in human microbiome composition. Additionally, the investigators aim to explore the environmental, health and lifestyle factors that can influence these microbiome changes. Adults and/or children will be asked to visit a green space (such as an urban park) and perform specific activities (such as walking or pushing a stroller) for a defined time period. Before and after this visit, swabs of their skin and nose will be collected to analyze microbiome changes. In addition, questionnaires will be administered to the participants, with the goal to align microbiome changes with environmental, health, lifestyle and demographic factors.
Interventions
OTHERVisiting a green space
Participants are asked to visit a green space for a defined time period
Sponsors
Universiteit Antwerpen
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
4 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Children (min. 4 years old) and adult participants (18+) of any gender in generally good health. No strict
Exclusion criteria
will be set in advance.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Microbiome changes | Two time points directly before and after the intervention (on 1 day) | Microbiome sequencing will be performed to assess changes in microbial community composition of nasal and skin swabs, focusing on abundances and diversity of different microorganisms and their genes |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Specific microorganisms within the skin and nasal microbiomes | Two time points directly before and after the intervention (on 1 day) | Specific microorganisms within the participants' microbiomes will be assessed through culturing of swabs and/or quantification via qPCR |
| Associations between the human microbiome and environment | Two time points directly before and after the intervention (on 1 day) | Human microbiome composition and diversity (as assessed in outcome Microbiome changes) will be correlated with the green space environment characteristics, such as the environmental (microbiome) biodiversity |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Self-reported lifestyle | One time point directly before or after the intervention (on 1 day) | Lifestyle will be assessed using a short questionnaire to understand how it might impact the microbiome (as assessed in outcome Microbiome changes), reflecting lifestyle-related parameters such as weekly time spent outdoors (in hours) and frequency of exposure to green environments (e.g., once a year) |
| Self-reported health | One time point directly before or after the intervention (on 1 day) | Self-reported general health will be assessed using a short questionnaire to understand how it might impact the microbiome (as assessed in outcome Microbiome changes), reflecting health-related parameters such as a health rating (from very poor to very good) |
| Self-reported demographic information | One time point directly before or after the intervention (on 1 day) | Demographic information will be assessed using a short questionnaire to understand how it might impact the microbiome (as assessed in outcome Microbiome changes), reflecting demographic parameters such as age (in years), gender, and parent-child relationship (having one or more children) |
Countries
Belgium
Contacts
Primary ContactIrina Spacova, Prof.
Outcome results
None listed