Health Benefits of Gardening

Summary

The objective of the research is to test the hypothesis that participating in group-based gardening or group-based art activities may alter the mental health and cardiac physiological status of a wellness population of women ages 26-49. Assessment of the effects of gardening or art activities on the experimental population will take two approaches, the first being the use of physiological measurements of heart rate and blood pressure. The second approach will employ six widely used and well-established self-reported assessment instruments that will capture information about the health and well-being of participants. These measurements and assessments will provide a psychometrically-based before and after mental health status and between treatments health summaries of the participants in the gardening group and those engaged in the art group activities.

Conditions

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Healthy
• Mood Disturbance
• Stress
• Quality of Life
• Physical Activity
• Social Interaction

Interventions

OTHER

Art

Participants will receive a hands-on art activities intervention consisting of two art activities sessions each week lasting approximately 60 minutes each in duration for four weeks for a total of eight sessions. Art activities will include hand papermaking, image transfer, visual storytelling, linocut printmaking, paper batik, mixed media collage, and sensation drawing based activities. Participants will complete sets of self-report psychometric assessments before, during, and following the art intervention. Heart rate and blood pressure will be monitored before, during, and following completion of the art intervention.

OTHER

Gardening

Participants will receive a hands-on gardening intervention consisting of two gardening sessions each week lasting approximately 60 minutes each in duration for four weeks, for a total of eight sessions. Gardening activities will include planting seeds, bulbs and tubers, transplanting seedlings, vegetative propagation and sight, smell, taste and touch sensory based activities. Participants will complete sets of self-report psychometric assessments before, during, and following the gardening intervention. Heart rate and blood pressure will be monitored before, during, and following completion of the gardening intervention.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Florida

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Charles L Guy, PhD · University of Florida

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

26 Years

Max Age

49 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-08-03

Primary Completion

2017-11-09

Completion

2018-01-15

Countries

• United States

Study Locations