Physical and Psychological Health Conditions of Older Adults Classified as Gardeners or Nongardeners

By Sin-Ae Park, C. Shoemaker, M. Haub. 2009

98 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Theobjectiveof thisstudywas tocomparethephysicalandpsychological health conditions and leisure-time activities, particularly physical activities (PAs), of older gardenersandnongardeners.Fifty-threeolderadultswererecruitedfromthecommunity of Manhattan, KS. Three groups were classified based on results from the Community Healthy Activities Model Program for Seniors questionnaire: active gardeners (n = 11) classified as gardeners that met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) PA recommendation through gardening; gardeners (n = 14) classified as gardeners that did not meet the CDC's PA recommendation through gardening; and nongardeners (n = 28). Overall physicaland mental health conditions were determined withthe Short-Form 36Health Survey(SF-36), handfunction(hand strength andpinch force) wasdetermined by dynamometers, and bone mineral density (BMD) was determined by dual-energy x- ray absorptiometry. Active gardeners were significantly different from gardeners and nongardenersin physical health(P #0.05)on SF-36.There were nodifferences inmental health among the three groups, but all groups had scores higher than the U.S. general population. Active gardeners + gardeners had greater hand strength and pinch force than nongardeners. There was no difference in BMD among the groups, but all subjects had higher scores than the standard BMD value for their age. The only significant difference of caloric expenditure in leisure-time PAs among the groups was gardening (P < 0.001). In conclusion, gardening can be a useful strategy to meet the CDC's PA recommendation. In addition to the health benefits linked to regular PA, this study showed that gardening promotes hand strength, pinch force, and overall physical health.

Subfields: Complementary and Manual Therapy, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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Allotment Gardening and Other Leisure Activities for Stress Reduction and Healthy Aging (2011, background): “Park et al. (2009) ob- servedsigniﬁcantlyhigherphysicalfunc-tion and signiﬁcantly less bodily pain amongst individuals classiﬁed as active gardeners when compared with those classiﬁed as non-gardeners.”