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Relation
Corley J, Okely JA, Taylor AM, et al. Home gardening use during COVID-19: Associations with physical and mental well-being in older adults.J Environ Psychol. 2021;73:101545.
Study objective
Determining the physical and mental/emotional impact of gardening on older adults during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020
Participant
The study included 171 older participants (all born in 1936, 53% male) from the ongoing Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study in Scotland, United Kingdom.
Draft
Cross-sectional cohort of an ongoing longitudinal study
intervention
Researchers sent participants a letter asking them to complete a 145-item online survey at home. This survey asked about their frequency of gardening and various health practices both before the start of the UK Covid-19 lockdown (March 2020) and now two months later (May/June 2020).
Researchers conducted all data analyzes as ordinary regressions, adjusting for participants' gender, household size, education level, occupational social class, symptoms of anxiety and depression, body mass index (BMI), and history of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Target parameters
The online survey included demographic and Covid awareness information as well as 5-point Likert-type questions on gardening activities and frequency before and after lockdown, physical health, emotional and mental health, sleep quality and fear of Covid-19. The researchers evaluated an additional composite health score as an amalgam of the other health scores.
Key insights
After adjusting for all covariates, the researchers found that participants who had more gardening use in the 2 months following the Covid-19 lockdown were significantly associated with better health measures than those who did not garden, including:
- Selbsteinschätzung der körperlichen Gesundheit (0,74, 95 % KI 0,23–1,25, P<0,005)
- Emotionale und mentale Gesundheit (0,58, 95 % KI 0,02–1,13, P=0,04)
- Schlafqualität (0,58, 95 % KI 0,07–1,09, P=0,03)
- Zusammengesetzter Gesundheitsscore (0,79, 95 %-KI 0,32–1,25, P=0,001)
The researchers found no significant results for any of the health measures in relation to participants' perceived change before and after lockdown.
Practice implications
The global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in massive disruptions to public health, including physical and mental health. In addition to viral infections causing high hospitalization and mortality rates, societal lockdowns have drastically limited the typical abilities of individuals and communities to work, socialize, and participate in many activities. The resulting reduction in health behaviors such as physical activity and social interaction negatively impacts many aspects of physical health as well as mental health such as depression, anxiety and insomnia.1-3This is of particular concern for older populations, who are simultaneously at higher risk of consequences of both Covid-19 infection and multiple physical and mental illnesses due to limited physical mobility, weaker immune systems and increased social isolation in non-Covid times.4
The development of urban parks occurred in part in response to pandemics of infectious diseases such as cholera and polio that occurred frequently in the late 19th century.
One way to counteract these health problems is to spend more time in nature. The numerous health benefits of exposure to outdoor green spaces have been widely reported and are well known.5These simple methods are readily available to most people, even if they live in urban environments. In fact, the development of urban parks occurred in part in response to pandemics of infectious diseases such as cholera and polio that occurred frequently in the late 19th century.6Providing areas where people could be physically active and receive plenty of fresh air and sunlight while avoiding the unsanitary conditions of city life before installation was an urban planning response to a public health problem.8Access to green spaces has also been suggested as a way to maintain health during the current pandemic. In fact, in the early stages of the pandemic, there was a global increase in people spending more time outdoors, in direct contrast to many municipalities' efforts to limit time in parks and other green spaces.7
There are many ways to get close to nature. Gardening, in particular, is a simple and effective way to experience all of nature's health benefits. Spending time gardening offers people the opportunity to increase their physical activity, breathe fresh air, absorb sunlight and increase vitamin D, and have a local source of inexpensive, high-quality nutrition. It also allows people to relax and relieve stress, calm their minds, distract themselves from other life matters, and increase their self-esteem and sense of self-efficacy, all while connecting with family and cultural roots and activities. And digging in the soil brings into contact many beneficial microbes that modulate the healthy functioning of the digestive, immune and nervous systems.
Multiple studies have confirmed the diverse benefits of gardening, including reductions in blood pressure and salivary cortisol, as well as improvements in depression, anxiety, quality of life, and subjective well-being.9-11The study reviewed here suggests that these could directly benefit older people and other populations negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
restrictions
As a cross-sectional study, this survey was unable to examine longitudinal cause-effect relationships. It may be that positive results reflect the interest and/or ability of healthier participants to garden more frequently, rather than the other way around. There is evidence to suggest both are correct, so further investigation is warranted.
As a survey, several limitations must be taken into account. The survey's self-report method provides only subjective response data, which is inherently susceptible to bias and recall errors. Asking participants to compare their health changes before and after the Covid lockdown is not as meaningful as analyzing data collected both before and after the lockdown. Such a longitudinal approach might have provided more convincing data on changes in health status from the survey.
The format of the survey was also limiting. A 145-item online survey completed by 84-year-old participants is a suboptimal method of data collection. It is likely that technological limitations in Internet access and the length of the survey may have prevented otherwise eligible individuals from participating.
Conclusion
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected physical and mental health worldwide, particularly in vulnerable populations such as the elderly. This is the result of direct effects of the virus as well as systemic effects of the societal lockdown, which indirectly limits many of the lifestyle and environmental factors that influence health. Gardening can be a viable method to overcome some of these imposed barriers and to support and restore the opportunity to improve individuals' physical and mental health and well-being.