RESEARCH
The Impact of Gardening on Well-Being, Mental Health, and Quality of Life: An Umbrella Review and Meta-Analysis
Summary
This research paper, titled “The impact of gardening on well-being, mental health, and quality of life: an umbrella review and meta-analysis”, looks at many previous studies (systematic reviews and meta-analyses) to understand the overall impact of gardening and horticultural therapy on people’s well-being. The researchers searched major electronic databases up to December 2022 to find these existing reviews. They included 40 reviews in their analysis, which examined the effects of different types of gardening on various aspects of well-being, mental health, and quality of life in adults. The goal of this “umbrella review” was to get a broad understanding of what is already known about this topic and to assess the quality of the existing research.
The findings of this umbrella review indicate an overall positive association between gardening activities and improvements in mental well-being, quality of life, and health status. Specifically, the included reviews showed that gardening and horticultural therapy can benefit psychological well-being (like social connections) and physiological well-being. They also reported positive impacts on mental health outcomes such as reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety, lowering stress, improving mood, and enhancing cognitive function. Furthermore, improvements in quality of life, including life satisfaction and social connections, were linked to gardening. However, the researchers caution that the quality of many of the reviewed studies was critically low, and there was significant variation between them, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions or give direct clinical recommendations. Nevertheless, a statistical analysis of some of the studies showed a significant positive effect of gardening on well-being.
