Biophilic design in healthcare: a systematic review of health and wellbeing outcomes

What the study found

The review links biophilic interventions with reduced stress, anxiety and pain and with some recovery-related outcomes, while evidence strength varies.

Limitations

Interventions and endpoints are heterogeneous; many studies are observational or small.

Neurodesign interpretation

Biophilic design is not one treatment. The corpus needs to keep the view, daylight, plant, material and sound mechanisms separate so weak evidence in one does not borrow strength from another.

Possible design implications

Prioritize interventions with direct exposure pathways such as views, daylight and accessible nature, while grading evidence separately for each.

Why it stays in the corpus

Retain as a recent healthcare-biophilia synthesis and reference source.

Study design

Systematic review

Population

Patients and healthcare staff

Setting

Healthcare settings

Field

Healthcare design, biophilia

Mechanism

Stress, anxiety, pain, recovery

Spatial variable

Nature views, daylight, plants, natural materials

Keywords

healthcare, biophilia, stress, pain, recovery