Potential of a Small Indoor Plant on the Desk for Reducing Office Workers’ Stress

• Main Authors: Masahiro Toyoda, Yuko Yokota, Marni Barnes, Midori Kaneko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) 2019-12-01
• Series: HortTechnology
• Subjects: involuntary attention; mental health; pulse rate; stai; state-trait anxiety inventory; work environment
• Online Access: https://journals.ashs.org/horttech/view/journals/horttech/30/1/article-p55.xml

In modern society, stress reduction in the workplace is a pressing issue. Although many studies have been done on the psychological and physiological effects of indoor plants, the majority of them have been conducted in laboratory or quasi-office settings. The objective of this study was to verify the stress reduction effects of the presence of small indoor plants on employees in a real office setting. We investigated the changes in psychological and physiological stress before and after placing a plant on a worker’s desk. Sixty-three office workers at an electric company in Japan were the participants of this study. The participants were directed to take a 3-minute rest while sitting at their desk when they felt fatigue. There were two phases of the study: a control period without plants and an intervention period when the participants were able to see and care for a small plant. We measured psychological stress in the participants using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). As an index of physiological stress, the participants measured their own pulse rate throughout the study. STAI scores decreased significantly after the intervention period (P < 0.05). The ratio of the participants whose pulse rate lowered significantly after a 3-minute rest increased significantly during the intervention period (P < 0.05). Our study indicates that having opportunities to gaze intentionally at nearby plants on a daily basis in the work environment can reduce the psychological and physiological stress of office workers.