The Effect of Proximity to Forest Areas and Frequency of Forest Use on Perceived Health and Stress Levels

Forest areas may represent an important component of everyday urban environments, yet evidence remains mixed regarding whether perceived proximity and actual use show similar associations with health-related outcomes. Using a cross-sectional descriptive–correlational design, this study examined associations of perceived stress and self-rated health with perceived walking access to the nearest forest, residential green view, visit frequency, and visit duration among adults living in İstanbul, Türkiye. The study included 345 adults aged 18 years and older; complete PSS-14 data were available for 332 participants. In bivariate analyses, older age was associated with lower perceived stress, whereas longer perceived walking time was associated with higher perceived stress. Greater residential green view, more frequent visits, and longer visit duration were associated with lower perceived stress. For self-rated health, only visit frequency showed a significant bivariate association. In adjusted analyses, visit frequency remained independently associated with lower PSS-14 scores, whereas green view showed a borderline inverse association. In the ordinal logistic regression model, female sex was associated with higher odds of reporting worse self-rated health, while visit frequency and green view remained borderline. These findings indicate modest associations, with the clearest pattern observed for visit frequency and perceived stress. Given the convenience-sample design, self-reported exposure measures, and low model explanatory power, the findings should be interpreted as correlational and hypothesis-generating rather than causal.