27 RESEARCH ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPY EFFECT OF IMMERSIVE CULTURAL HERITAGE TOURISM ON ANXIETY DISORDER PATIENTS
Authors: Zhang Jingjing , Shao Chuanpeng , Cai* Liqun 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Anxiety disorder is a common mental illness, and patients are prone to excessive worry and fear, which seriously affects their quality of life and work performance. As an activity to relax and provide emotional value, immersive cultural heritage tourism provides new treatment ideas for anxiety patients. Cultural heritage tourism can help patients break away from daily sources of anxiety and immerse themselves in an environment rich in meaning and historical heritage. Through multi sensory stimuli such as visual and auditory stimulation, emotional resonance can be triggered, allowing patients to release their psychological emotions and improve their internal anxiety problems. Therefore, the study aims to improve the psychological stress of anxiety patients by analyzing the impact of immersive cultural heritage tourism on anxiety patients.

Methods
During the research process, 60 anxiety disorder patients were selected as the experimental group, and another 60 age and gender matched healthy volunteers were selected as the control group. The experimental group conducted a one-month immersive cultural heritage tourism activity, three times a week for half a day each time, including visiting ancient buildings and participating in folk cultural activities. At the same time, a psychological evaluation system was used to conduct psychological assessments on both the experimental group and the control group. The evaluation indicators include the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA): 0-7 points indicate no anxiety, 8-14 points indicate mild, 15-21 points indicate moderate, and 22 points or above indicate severe; Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI): A score of 0-5 indicates good sleep, 6-10 indicates average sleep, 11-15 indicates poor sleep, and 16 or above indicates very poor sleep; Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI): A score of 0-7 indicates good, 8-15 indicates mild, 16-25 indicates moderate, and 26 or above indicates severe; Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC): The higher the score, the better the psychological resilience. Scores below 30 are poor, 30-50 are moderate, 51-70 are good, and 71 or above are excellent.

Results
Table 1 is the Psychological assessment scores between different groups. According to the test results, the experimental group showed significant improvements in anxiety levels, sleep quality, psychological resilience, and other aspects after immersive cultural heritage tourism, especially in sleep quality (P&lt;0.005). while other indicators showed positive changes in scores.

Discussion
In summary, this study indicates that immersive cultural heritage tourism has a positive psychological therapeutic effect on patients with anxiety disorders. During the travel process, patients can release their anxiety and negative emotions by browsing and sharing tourism projects, and enhance their psychological coping abilities. Especially cultural heritage tourism, which contains a large number of humanistic elements and spirits, can significantly improve the mental and emotional values of patients during the tourism process, which has a positive impact on improving patients’ anxiety symptoms.

Funding
No. GS[2022]GHB1912; No. 23ZZ11.