| Summary: | 碩士 === 南華大學 === 自然生物科技學系自然療癒碩士班 === 106 === Background and Purpose: For the elderly, aging not only means bodily function deterioration but it also brings various changes to their daily living, interpersonal interaction, and family structure. Some elderly people may even start wondering about the meaning and value of life. This type of concerns indicate that more attention should be placed on the physical, mental and spiritual health of elderly people. In fact, if the elderly’s emotional or other psychological needs or issues are not properly handled, it will not only affect their physical health but in time may also lead to depression or even suicidal thoughts. Horticultural therapy refers to the use of horticultural activities related to plants, gardening, and the natural environment to attain a given therapeutic goal by improving participants’ social, emotional, cognitive, physical, mental, and spiritual health and wellbeing. In this study, we explored the effects of horticultural therapy on the physical, mental, and spiritual health as well as the well-being of the elderly.
Materials and Methods: A parallel two-group, pre-test and post-test study was conducted. A total of 61 elderly people of 60 years old or above was recruited and divided into two groups: the experimental group (N=31) and the control group (N=30). For the experimental group, a two-hour horticultural therapeutic class was given once a week for eight consecutive weeks. The Efficacy of Horticultural Therapy Evaluation Form and the Body, Mind, and Spiritual Health Scale for the Elderly were used before and after the therapeutic classes. Descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, the chi-square test, and one-way ANOVA were performed using SPSS 18.0 for Windows and Microsoft Excel, while the Friedman test was conducted for post-hoc comparisons.
Results: This study revealed that after eight weeks of horticultural therapy, the experimental and control groups showed significant differences (t test, P < 0.05) in the scores from the Body, Mind, and Spiritual Health Scale for the Elderly and from the post-test of the Efficacy of Horticultural Therapy Evaluation Form. This finding indicates a positive effect of horticultural therapy on the physical, mental and spiritual health of the elderly. As for the covariate analysis, after eliminating the effects of the pre-test from the post-test scores in both questionnaires, significant differences were found between the two groups on the post-test scores. This study also showed that the elderly’s interaction with plants can make them more willing to receive medical and rehabilitation treatments. Even though horticultural therapy is considered as a form of complementary medicine, it is nevertheless an excellent approach for rehabilitation purposes. For the elderly, developing a close relationship with plants is beneficial for stimulating their memory and thinking, as well as trigger their interests in the surrounding environment, which in turn promotes a balanced physical, mental, and spiritual development by boosting their health awareness and sense of well-being.
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