RESEARCH

Effect of Horticultural Therapy on Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

This study combined the results of 18 randomized controlled trials and found that horticultural therapy has a significant and positive effect on mental health. The findings suggest that integrating HT into healthcare settings could be a useful way to improve mental well-being.
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Summary

This study looked at whether horticultural therapy (HT), which involves working with plants, can help improve people’s mental health. The researchers gathered the results from multiple past studies called randomized controlled trials (RCTs). These types of studies are considered high-quality because they randomly assign people to either receive the therapy or not, allowing researchers to see if the therapy truly makes a difference. By combining the results of 18 of these studies, the researchers could get a better overall picture of how HT affects mental well-being.

The main finding of this research is that horticultural therapy has a positive and noticeable impact on mental health. The researchers found that, on average, people who participated in HT showed improvements in their mental health compared to those who did not. This suggests that using plant-based activities in a structured way could be a helpful tool for improving mental well-being in healthcare and community settings. The most common HT programs in the studies involved at least eight sessions of indoor and outdoor plant activities, as well as plant-related arts and crafts.

Link

Tu, H. (2022). Effect of horticultural therapy on mental health: A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 29(4), 603–615.

 

Notes/Suggestions

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