g = -0.67
portable digital nature reduces anxiety
Hedges' g is a standardised effect size, in standard-deviation units
Portable Digital Nature Experience significantly reduces anxiety
Across 118 effect sizes from 36 RCTs, PDNE yielded a statistically significant reduction in anxiety (g = -0.67, 95% CI [-1.01, -0.33], p < .001). This was the largest effect among the three mental health outcomes examined, suggesting digital nature experiences may be especially beneficial for anxiety relief. Notably, auditory nature conditions outperformed both multisensory and visual-only conditions for anxiety.
Results from the three-level meta-analysis indicate that PDNE significantly reduced three common mental health issues, including stress (g = -0.51; 95% CI [-0.73, -0.28]; p < .001), anxiety (g = -0.67; 95% CI [-1.01, -0.33]; p < .001), and depression (g = -0.26; 95% CI [-0.51, -0.01]; p = .044).
Related findings
58%
natural park attributes drive most of the model's explanation of wellbeing
Natural attributes of urban green spaces account for 58% of model-attributed contributions to mental well-being
E Cheng et al., 2026, Journal of Environmental Management
sensory bird interaction has the largest indirect mental health effect via restorative perception
Sensory human–bird interaction most strongly boosts mental health indirectly by enhancing restorative environmental perception
Runxuan Zhang et al., 2025, Land
46%
restorative perception partly explains how bird interactions improve mental health
Restorative environmental perception mediates nearly half of the mental health benefit from human–bird interactions
Runxuan Zhang et al., 2025, Land
Read more in
Healthcare 
Housing What an insecure home does to people
Britain abolished no-fault eviction. The evidence reads it as a health intervention, and the market decides who it reaches.
Education What school spaces do to children
Where the evidence on classroom air, acoustics, light and green is robust, where it is thin, and what to measure before the build.
More from The Built Review
Workplace Pricing biophilia: what the evidence is worth
Read at the primary sources, the business case for nature in buildings is narrower than advertised and strong enough to act on.
Healthcare Built to Wake: How Hospital Noise and Light Undermine Patient Sleep
Of the two environmental levers on inpatient sleep, noise control is the better proven and the cheaper, while tunable lighting for the general ward is the one the evidence does not yet support.
Workplace Germany's missing indoor-air bill
France, Britain and Australia have priced bad indoor air. Germany's missing number is a political choice, not a methodological limit.