Main characteristics of the included articles
| AuthorYear | Results | InterventionProtocol | Outcome measured | Age and gender | Participant count | Location | Study design | Quality assurance** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Park et al. (2020)[37] | Tryptophan, kynurenine, and serotonin may be useful as metabolic biomarkers for improved cognitive ability by the gardening intervention. | Engaged 24 sessions of 60 min gardening activity sessions twice per week of activities involving garden design and planning, planting transplants, sowing seeds, cutting, garden maintenance, and hydroponics. |
| 71.8 ± 4.850% ♀ | 40 | Korea | Quasi-experimental | 79% |
| Yang et al. (2022)[54] | Therapeutic gardening is promising and applicable as a nature-based intervention to improve the mental health of individuals experiencing psychological distress especially in the COVID-19 pandemic. | A therapeutic gardening program that involved engaging in setting up kitchen garden, setting up seasonal bed, setting up herb bed, health lecture, setting up aquatic garden, setting up rock garden, sowing, mulching, composting and irrigation, removing weed as a group for 30 sessions for 3 h twice per week for 15 weeks. |
| 55.579% ♀ | 111 | Korea | Multi sites trial | 95% |
| Park et al. (2019)[36] | The levels of brain nerve growth factors related to memory were significantly increased after the gardening activity in senior adults. | A 20-min gardening activity intervention with low-to-moderate intensity gardening activities such as digging, raking, planting/transplanting, fertilizing, and watering. |
| 76.6 ± 6.068% ♀ | 41 | South Korea | Pre-post intervention study | 100% |
| Kotozaki (2020)[50] | Provide evidence that the effects of gardening activities on the psychological health of postpartum women. | Engagement in 8 weeks of gardening activity involving planting and nurturing plants, weeding, and gathering flowers they grew, and made an herbarium of dried flowers. |
| 30.4 ± 3.2100% ♀ | 15 | Japan | Exploratory pre- and post-intervention pilot study | 95% |
| Kotozaki (2020)[55] | Horticultural activity may improve mental health and cognitive functions in postpartum women. | Engagement in 8 weeks of gardening activity involving planting and nurturing plants, weeding, and gathering flowers they grew, and made an herbarium of dried flowers. |
| 30.4100% ♀ | 15 | Japan | Exploratory pilot study | 95% |
| Han et al. (2018)[40] | Horticultural therapy can improve the stress levels and physical functional abilities of elderly people with mental health problems. | A horticultural therapy program that involved 10 once a week 90 min sessions of plant cultivating activities such as making plant beds, planting transplants, watering, weeding, and harvesting. |
| 80.1 92% ♀ | 28 | South Korea | Pre- and post-test design with experimental and control groups | 79% |
| Van Den Berg & Custers (2011)[39] | Gardening can promote relief from acute stress.Reported on reduction of cortisol levels and mood regulation. | 30 minutes of outdoor gardening or indoor reading |
| 57.673% ♀ | 30 | The Netherlands | Experimental design | 79% |
| Smith-Carrier et al. (2021)[52] | Therapeutic gardening is a valuable practice for people with dementia. | Therapeutic gardening that involved series of six waves that involved planning, planting, tending, pruning and harvesting for five months in groups. |
| Elderly | 6 | Canada | Qualitative design | 95% |
| Widodo et al. (2019)[47] | Horticultural therapy to plant flowers had a positive effect on stress levels in the elderly. | Horticultural therapy was an activity of planting and caring for flower plants through planting, weeding, watering, fertilizing for 6 months. |
| 45–5921% ♀ | 14 | Indonesia | Quasi experimental design | 71% |
| Christie et al. (2016)[49] | Immersion in horticultural activity may be an effective treatment modality in promoting positive health benefits to service users. | A 12-month horticultural therapy intervention that involved raking, digging, planting, watering, adding mulch and potting up plants. |
| 52.371% ♀ | 7 | UK | Qualitative design | 90% |
| Hassan et al. (2018)[58] | Gardening activities contribute to significant lower anxiety levels after gardening tasks. | Transplanting activity using soil with plants or translating without plants 15 min in duration |
| 79.5100% ♀ | 40 | China | Experiment design | 95% |
| Styck and George (2022)[56] | Gardening has a positive impact on psychological wellbeing of person living with dementia. | Gardening sessions that involved watering, weeding, fertilizing, and harvesting the crops twice weekly at outdoor raised beds over a 2-month duration |
| > 5090% ♀ | 10 | Michigan | Cluster randomized pilot study (Qualitative) | 95% |
| Odeh et al. (2022)[60] | Group-based gardening or art-making can provide quantitatively measurable improvements in healthy women’s psychosocial health status. | Group based indoor art making and 15 gardening activities that include planting seeds and vegetative propagation by cuttings/divisions; transplanting; and simulated harvest. |
| 32–33100% ♀ | 42 | Gainesville or Florida | Randomized controlled trial | 96% |
| Makizako et al. (2019)[38] | Exercise may improve memory, while horticultural activity may not. | Exercise and horticultural activities involving 20 weekly 60- to 90-min sessions involving group crop-related activities such as cultivating, growing, and harvesting. |
| 73.150% ♀ | 89 | Japan | Randomized controlled trial | 93% |
| Vujcic et al. (2017)[57] | Nature-based therapy is recommended to psychiatric patients as a form of occupational or supportive therapy. | Horticulture therapy that involved exposure to green environments and plot weeding and potting collected fruits thrice a week for an hour for four weeks. |
| 45.3570% ♀ | 30 | Serbia | Randomized controlled trial | 75% |
| Kim et al. (2021)[43] | Activities of transplanting have a positive effect on the cognitive function of elderly people by increasing brain activity. | Horticultural and nonhorticultural activities as leisure activities |
| 74.050% ♀ | 58 | South Korea | Cross-over experimental design | 95% |
| Hewitt et al. (2013)[53] | A meaningful guided activity program can maintain or improve well-being in the presence of cognitive deterioration. | 2 hours per week structured activity programme of gardening |
| 43–6567% ♀ | 12 | UK | Mixed-method study | 95% (quantitative)100% (qualitative) |
| Lai et al. (2022)[29] | Evidence that gardening can stimulate functional connectivity in the brain, activation of positive emotions, and mindfulness in the brain. | Three stages of horticultural activities of site preparation and sowing, fertilizing and weeding, and harvesting for 6 weeks |
| 2347% ♀ | 23 | Taiwan | Pre-post experimental study | 95% |
| Lee et al. (2021)[44] | Results showed that each horticultural activity showed promotion of brain activity. Study confirmed the possibility of horticultural activity as a short-term physical intervention to improve attention levels and emotional states. | Engagement in horticultural activities that involved raking, sowing seed, hoeing, weeding, pruning, watering, over two minutes intervals and one-minute rests for 90 minutes. |
| 24.97 ± 2.6250% ♀ | 60 | Korea | Experimental study | 95% |
| Masuya & Ota (2014)[51] | Elderly people with mild to moderate dementia improved after participation in the horticultural activities program. | Horticultural activities such as seeding and transplanting plants into individual pots, thinning and harvesting them for 30–40 min once a week for six consecutive weeks. |
| 8882% ♀ | 9 | Tokyo | Non-controlled trial | 100% |
| Tao et al. (2022)[59] | Choosing suitable plant types in horticultural activities is positively significant in enhancing affect. | Horticultural activities that involved digging, transplanting, and watering for 30 min |
| 22.5Gender not reported | 152 | China | Randomized field-controlled trial | 86% |
| Toyoda et al. (2017)[46] | The need for collating external information corresponding to changes in the external environment induced repeated frontal pole activation during the gardening tasks. | Engagement in repeated gardening tasks involving seeding task and a watering task |
| 67.763% ♀ | 24 | Japan | Quantitative design | 100% |
| Ng et al. (2018)[42] | Horticultural therapy can reduce plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6), thus may prevent inflammatory disorders, and through maintaining plasma CXCL12 (SDF-1α), may maintain hematopoietic support to the brain. Thus, may enhance the well-being of older adults. | Engagement in 15 sessions of horticultural activities involving indoor gardening, growing, maintaining and harvesting vegetables and herbs, as well as guided walks in the various parks |
| 67.1Gender not reported | 59 | Singapore | Randomized controlled trial | 79% |
< 50%: poor quality; 50–59%: adequate quality; 60–79%: good quality; > 80%: strong quality; ♀: female; **: QualSyst tool for quantitative and qualitative studies was used to appraise the quality. The mixed method was appraised by evaluating both checklists [32]
