What does the research say?
Nature Minds draws on a growing body of evidence supporting nature-based, purposeful and multidomain approaches to positive brain health. In a 2026 study of older adults withcognitive health changes, participants taking part in a four-week nature-based intervention showed a significant improvement in MMSE cognitive scores, while the matched control group declined; the difference in change between groups was statistically significant (p = 0.003). The researchers concluded that the intervention “yielded cognitive benefits in older adults with memory loss". This sits alongside Green Care Farm research from Norway and the Netherlands showing greater physical activity, outdoor participation, purposeful engagement and social interaction compared with conventional day-care settings. One Norwegian study found that people attending farm-based dementia day care accumulated approximately 23 additional minutes of moderate physical activity per day, while Dutch researchers found significantly greater active engagement, social interaction and time spent outdoors provided significant brain health improvements.
Emerging evidence specifically in early cognitive change
The particularly important point for a health professional is not simply that the intervention group's score rose from 21.95 to 23.14. It is that the statistical analysis found a significant group × time interaction (p = 0.003) — the groups changed differently over the four weeks. The authors appropriately say that longer-term randomised trials are still needed.
Kwan et al., Psychiatry Investigation, 2026. MMSE analysis: n=22 per group.
Research supports the approach underpinning Nature Minds
Why the Green Care Approach Matters.
This second graph is almost a visual explanation of the Nature Minds philosophy: people are moving, interacting and outside rather than simply being occupied.
In a separate Norwegian study using activity monitors, participants also took about 1,043 more steps, spent 40 minutes more in light activity, 12.5 minutes more in moderate activity, and approximately 26 minutes less sedentary on days they attended the farm service than on days they did not.
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What the Green Care Farm environment actually changes
The Nature Minds programme itself has not yet been clinically evaluated, however Green Care Farm studies largely involve people already living with conditions affecting brain health, memory and thinking. The evidence is compelling because the cognitive health change research, multidomain intervention research and Green Care Farm evidence are all beginning to point in the same direction. Purposeful, physical, social activities in nature provide significant positive brain health benefits.
There are now a significant number of brain health studies which have found small-to-medium improvements across global cognition, executive function, memory and verbal fluency, with combined approaches appearing superior to single interventions.
Read more of this evidence by clicking on the images below.
More research that supports the Nature Minds way.
