Health Effects of a Walking Program in a High-Quality Tourism Environment for Older Women

The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the effect of environmental context on the health benefits of a standardized walking program in sedentary, overweight older women (aged ≥60 years, BMI ≥24.0 kg/m²) . The main questions it aims to answer are: Does exercising in a high-quality natural tourism environment (Yangshuo) lead to greater improvements in body composition (e.g., body fat percentage) compared to exercising in a conventional institutional setting? Does this environment lead to greater improvements in psychological well-being (e.g., depressive symptoms, sleep quality) than the conventional setting? Researchers will compare a group that walks in the Yangshuo landscape to a group that performs the same walking regimen in a nursing home setting to see if the natural environment amplifies the health benefits of the exercise. Participants in both groups will take part in a supervised, 10-week walking program (5 days/week, 60 mins/session). All participants will have their physiological (e.g., weight, body fat, strength) and psychological (e.g., mood, sleep, quality of life) health measured before and after the program.