2.1. Study Design and Settings
The present data were collected as part of the ANKER-Study (ISRCTN43292449); this randomized, controlled clinical trial investigated the effects of two types of nature-based therapies in couples with a sedentary lifestyle on health-related quality of life, quality of relationship, psychological and physiological parameters. Therefore, two intervention groups—a hiking group (HG) and a forest therapy group (FTG)—were included. The allocation ratio was set at equal sample size. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of Bolzano, Italy (reference number 18-2019) and can be accessed with further details on materials and methods at 