Effects of an Agro-Healing Activity Program on the Physiological Condition of Adults with Chronic Metabolic Diseases

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Background and objective: This study was conducted to find out the effects of healing farm resources and participant satisfaction on the level of stress and loyalty. Methods: The experiment was conducted on 18 subjects who participated in agro-healing activities (aged 49.5 years on average) and the concentration of cortisol, the level of stress and satisfaction with the services and program of a healing farm. The healing-agriculture activities were performed once a week, a total of 7 sessions, for 90 minutes and their saliva was collected before and after the activities. Results: The concentration of cortisol, a stress hormone, was statistically significantly reduced after the healing-agriculture activities in 5 out of 7 sessions. The total cortisol concentration showed statistically significant differences. The 6th session was comprised of different activities, compared to others, such as understanding weeds, managing a garden and making a pizza with fermentation enzymes, and the level of cortisol in the 6th session was the lowest after participating in the agro-healing activities, which indicated that the activities have the positive effect of lowering the level of stress. The level of stress was lowered from 18.39 to 16.78, which was consistent with the results of the concentration of cortisol. The level of satisfaction in the last session was below 50%, which indicated that the owner of the farm might be a little inexperienced in education and marketing on information and safety. The variables of participants including stress and satisfaction with services showed a strong influence on their loyalty. Conclusion: Satisfaction with services and loyalty to the healing farm showed a very high correlation, which was statistically significant. It also showed that participants' stress level and satisfaction with the services and program of the healing farm have a strong influence on their loyalty.

Section: Satisfaction Of Participants In Agro-healing Activities Withsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Changes In the Cortisol Level Of Participants After Participsupporting

confidence: 86%

Relationship between Participants Satisfaction in Agro-Healing Activities in a Healing Farm and the Level of Stress and Loyalty

Jang

Jeong

Kim

et al. 2020

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“…The fact that 5 out of 20 participants in the study have at least three chronic diseases, and that hypertension takes up the highest portion, represents the issue of the many diseases that the elderly participants have. Therefore, physical activities related to horticultural plants that use the five senses of humans such as plowing the soil, sowing seeds, watering plants and removing weeds (Matsuo and Miyajima, 1998) reduce depression or stress of the elderly with dementia or the elderly living in an institution (Kim, 2009;Kim, 2013), and reduce blood pressure and pulses (Jang et al, 2019), which support the usefulness of the agro-healing program in this study.…”

Section: Satisfaction Of Participants In the Program And Number Of Chsupporting

confidence: 62%

Psychological and Physiological Changes in the Elderly Due to Agro-healing Activities

Jang¹,

Gim²,

Jeong³

et al. 2019

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This study was conducted to investigate psychological and physiological changes of elderly affected by agro-healing activities. To meet the purpose, we conducted an agro-healing program with 20 elderly participants (average age 77.6±5.84 men and women) and once a week in total seven sessions. The Korean version of the Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument (BEPSI-K), Korean version of the Short Form of Geriatric Depression Scale (SGDS-K), participants' satisfaction with the program, Salivettes system method, and blood pressure were measured to find out the effects of agro-healing activities. BEPSI-K decreased by 5% in the high stress group although it was not statistically significant. The result of program satisfaction showed that 75% of the participants are satisfied with these activities. We investigated how many and what kind of chronic diseases the participants have had before they joined the program. As a result, hypertension was most common(35.6%), followed by hyperlipidemia, diabetes, arthritis, lumbago, osteoporosis, and heart disease. Systolic blood pressure after the activities decreased significantly from 144.75mmHg (stage 1 hypertension), to 132.90mmHg(prehypertension stage). As a result of analyzing the correlations between general matters such as age, education level, average income of the participants, psychological scale and number of diseases, it was found that participants' satisfaction had a negative correlation with depression. In conclusion, agro-healing is very useful in relieving stress or lowering blood pressure for the elderly whose most common disease is hypertension. Agro-healing activities are proved to have positive uses in reducing the problems of the modern society with severe issues of the aging population.

“…Agro-healing activities that utilize plants and nature as a medium were reported to be effective in improving children and adolescents' self-efficacy, psychological wellbeing, self-esteem and sociality and for increasing psychological and emotional relaxation such as reducing aggression, stress and depression (Kang et al, 2012;Keum, 2014;Park and Kim, 2010;Shin, 2010;Soga et al, 2017;Yun and Yoo, 2011). They were also reported to have positive effects on the mental health of adults such as reducing their depression and stress and to be helpful in maintaining their physical health by reducing blood pressure (Jang, Gim, et al, 2019;Jang, Yoo, et al, 2019), and to have other various effects such as improving the mental health of the elderly by reducing a sense of loneliness, depression and stress, improving cognitive functions, the performance of daily life activities and life satisfaction (Kang and Back, 2017;Kim and Yoo, 2010;Lee and Sim, 2004;Oh and Yoo, 2010;Yoo and Jeong, 2010). Seol et al (2019) proved that activities of producing and selling horticultural products were effective for the vocational rehabilitation of those with mental disorders, and You and Shin (2019) reported that forest experiences can promote the visual perception of children with mental disabilities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of 2010s Research Trends in Research on Agro-Healing in South Korea

Jeong¹,

Yoo²,

Kim³

et al. 2020

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Background and objective: Agro-healing is crucial with urban farming in the domestic. It is beyond the conventional agriculture. This study was carried out to assess the 2010s researches on domestic agro-healing and predict the future direction of agro-healing development. Methods: Among the articles published from 2010 to 2018, we collected some articles by searching keywords including agro-healing, garden activity, gardening, horticultural activity, horticultural program, horticultural therapy, plant effect, plant environment, plant growing program, plant impact, social gardening, urban agriculture and vegetable garden activity, selected 83 articles that were evaluated in advance, and analyzed by frequency analysis, t-test, and one-way ANOVA with SPSS 20.0. Results: Agro-healing journal articles were published the most in 2010, and have declined since then. In the classification according to the academic society, most of the journal articles were published by the Society for People, Plants, and Environment. The main targets of domestic agro-healing related to activities and programs were preschoolers, children and adolescents, accounting for 52.4% of the total. By the characteristics of the subjects, agro-healing programs and studies were conducted with special participants who needed special care compared to the general participants. The dependent variables were classified into six areas according to their attributes and the share of psychological and emotional areas was highest (42.6%) among them. In terms of the composition of the program, the share of those with 9-12 sessions was highest (36.7%) and the share of those with more than 20 participants was also highest (39.8%). Conclusion: It is recommended to operate agro-healing programs or industries focusing on the socially disadvantaged including those who have special needs or the underprivileged, but in order to create income for farms and expand the demand for agro-healing, it will be necessary to spread the perception that anyone without any physical or emotional issue can be the targets of and experience agro-healing. To meet the different needs of targets of agro-healing, it will be necessary to conduct objective and practical studies on broader areas and in the process the healing functions of agriculture and the strength of agro-healing needs to be further highlighted.