• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.39-50
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• 2010

Purpose: The study was done to examine the development and effects of horticulture therapy on quality of sleep and immune function in patients in hospice units. Methods: The participants in this study were hospice patients in D hospital in D city. Thirty hospice patients were assigned to the experimental group, thirty to the control group. Data were collected from April 29 to July 26, 2009. The horticulture therapy program consisted of indoor and outdoor horticultural activities. The horticulture therapy was conducted for 30 minutes, 6 times a week for 3 weeks (a total 18 times). Measures were quality of sleep, and immune function by serum T-cell, NK-cell count. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test and t-test with SPSS/WIN 13.0 version. Results: Patients in the experimental group receiving horticulture therapy had a significant difference in changes in the quality of sleep compared to the control group. There were also a significant difference in changes in the immune function (serum T cell and serum NK cell) between the experimental group and control group. Conclusion: The study results indicate that horticulture therapy developed for hospice patients is an effective, palliative intervention program to improve the quality of sleep and immune function of hospice patients.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.4394-4402
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• 2011

The study was done to examine the effects of horticulture therapy on depression and stress in patient of hospice unit. The subjects of this study were hospice patient in D hospital in D city, thirty hospice patient were assigned to experimental group, thirty hospice patient were assigned to control group. Data were collected from April 29, 2009 to July 26, 2009. Horticulture therapy program consisted of indoor and outdoor horticultural activities. The horticulture therapy was conducted 30 minutes, 6 times a week for 3 weeks (a total 18 times). Measures were depression, and stress by serum cortisol count. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test and t-test with SPSS/WIN 17.0 version. The results of this study was patients in the experimental group receiving Horticulture therapy had a significant difference in changes of depression between the experimental group and control group. The study results indicate that horticulture therapy is an effective, palliative intervention program to improve the depression and stress of hospice patients.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.533-543
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• 2018

This study aimed to examine how the horticultural therapy that was originated in the US has influenced South Korea and Japan and developed in the two countries as an interim check to promote qualitative growth of horticultural therapy with the growing social attention. It also aimed to look into the background of how horticultural therapy was introduced in Japan (which introduced horticultural therapy around the same time as Korea), and the process of the introduction, and compare them with those of Korea in order to set the direction for horticultural therapy. Data was collected to prepare the chronological table of horticultural therapy in Korea and Japan and investigate the flow. Interviews were conducted with the professors who first opened a horticultural therapy course in university so as to determine the introduction background. The analysis results are summarized as follows: Horticultural therapy was created to give mental comfort and emotional purification to those concerned with horticulture that had concerns over social phenomena. In Korea, there had been a process of finding a way of getting mental comfort and emotional purification in the economic slowdown in the late 1990s. Since 2001, there have been more attention and demand for horticultural therapy. As a result, there has been a tendency of studying general horticultural welfare activities and professional horticultural therapy separately. In Japan, the environmental pollution that has arisen since 1970s led to a concern over social orientation in the relation between plants and humans. The academic conference of global researchers to establish the horticultural therapy studies influenced the introduction of horticultural therapy in Korea and Japan. Both countries had no operations and system, and developed them independently. They had similar directions to seek, such as the department of horticultural therapy, need for professional education, active introduction of hospital practice (internship), and security of operating budget. Horticultural therapy has many competencies and thus requires constant research and expansion.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.475-484
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• 2020

Background and objective: Horticultural activity is one of the most basic elements of horticultural therapy, which brings about therapeutic effects for participants through various plant-related activities. The main objective of this study was to verify the results of previous research, which suggested six types of activities from the exploratory factor analysis. Methods: To meet the purpose of this study, a questionnaire was designed to determine the preferences for 6 types of the horticultural therapy activities. The survey was conducted on 703 people from March 7 to June 20, 2019. The data of 674 cases were used into the final analysis, excluding unreliable responses. Descriptive statistics, and reliability analysis were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25, and confirmatory factor analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Amos 21. Results: First, horticultural therapy activities were classified into 6 types from the exploratory factor analysis, as conducted in previous research. The confirmatory factor analysis provided that the fit of the final model was satisfactory with χ² = 1,300.590 (p < .001), RMR = .045, GFI = .876, RMSEA = .062, NFI = .914, TLI = .905, CFI = .914. Conclusion: This result revalidated that the mode with 6 types of horticultural therapy activities from previous research is appropriate criteria for the classification of horticultural activities. The model could be used to design more systematic horticultural therapy programs that meet the needs or circumstances of the subject, or that are suitable for necessary therapeutic intervention methods.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.400-408
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• 2022

Objective: The purpose of this study is to compare EMG activity during horticulture motion and upper limb rehabilitation motion, to confirm whether horticulture motion is suitable for upper extremity rehabilitation of hemiparesis. Design: Three-group cross-sectional design. Methods: The 45 subjects were divided into three groups: hemiparesis (n=15), elderly (n=15) and healthy (n=15). We have recorded EMG signals of six upper limb muscles Upper trapezius (UT), Middle deltoid (MD), Anterior deltoid (AD), Biceps brachii (BB), Triceps brachii (TB), Brachioradialis (BR) during horticultural motions and three upper limb rehabilitative motions. The dependent variables were peak EMG, integral EMG, co-contraction ratio. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare the horticultural motion and rehabilitation motion of the three groups. Results: The peak EMG was significantly different in MD, AD, BB, TB according to the motion(p<0.05), and the UT, BB were significant differences according to the group(p<0.05). The integral EMG was significantly different in MD, AD, BB, TB, BR according to the motion(p<0.05), and the BB were significant differences according to the group(p<0.05). The co-contraction ratio was significantly different in TB/BB according of the motion, and there was no difference between the groups. Conclusions: As a result of this study, horticultural motion alone was insufficient for upper arm rehabilitation, and horticultural motion alone was insufficient to induce continuous activity of the forearm.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.601-609
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the applicability of rational emotive behavior therapy(REBT) technique to the horticultural activity program as a method of reducing irrational beliefs and job-seeking stress, and improving career maturity through the change of irrational beliefs. The subjects were 30 university students with irrational beliefs, 15 of them in the control group and 15 in the experimental group. The horticultural therapy program was carried out in total 10 sessions once a week for one and a half hours. For irrational beliefs, the experimental group showed a significant decrease (p=.002) in the total score after the program, but the control group showed an insignificant change (p=.529). Total job-seeking stress score was decreased significantly in the experimental group (p=.002) after the program, whereas it was increased in the control group (p=.023). For the career maturity, the experimental group showed a significant increase (p=.008) in the total score, whereas the control group showed a significant decrease (p=.028). Therefore, it can be found that REBT applied horticultural activity programs are helpful for reducing irrational beliefs and job-seeking stress and improving career maturity for young adults.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2020

This study conducted a horticultural therapy program for trainees entrusted to the Juvenile Classification Review Center in order to fill the educational gap while providing emotional stability during the one-month period of commissioned education. The effects of horticultural therapy were examined by the pretest and posttest changes of the emotional items such as anxiety, self-esteem, self-efficacy and stress index. As the research method, this study used the one-group pretest-posttest experimental design on 16 female trainees of commissioned education staying at the Juvenile Classification Review Center in the juvenile reformatory located in A city. The horticultural therapy program was carried out in four sessions: two on flower arrangement and two on planting. The scores before and after the horticultural therapy program were measured using the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) to examine the effects of horticultural therapy on the reduction of anxiety for the adolescents staying in the Juvenile Classification Review Center. The results show that there was significant decrease in the mean of anxiety from 62.5 (SD = 6.8) to 57.6 (SD = 8.1) points after the program (p = .002). There was no significant change in self-esteem, which was 76.9 (SD = 11.2) before the horticultural therapy and 78.3 (SD = 8.7) after the therapy (p = .420). In self-efficacy, there was no significant change from 72.9 (SD = 10.9) before and 75.1 (SD = 11.0) after horticultural therapy (p = .178). In order to examine the physiological changes in such emotional functions, this study measured the stress index using the uBioMacpa as the tool. The result of the measurement showed that there was a significant change in the mean from 33.8 (SD = 2.3) before to 31.1 (SD = 2.2) after the horticultural therapy (p < .001).

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.565-576
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• 2020

Background and objective: The elderly living in homeless living facilities for a long time suffer from various mental health problems. This study aims to determine the psychological, emotional, and social effects of a horticultural therapy program composed of gardening activities, which was designed based on the semantic structures of life for the homeless elderly living in the facilities for a long time. Methods: A total of 12 subjects (6 in the control group and 6 in the experimental group) participated in the study. The horticultural therapy program consisted mainly of gardening activities, and a total of 16 sessions were conducted once a week for 16 weeks, 60-90 minutes per session. The subjects were tested to evaluate their self-esteem, depression, and horticultural activities. The data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon rank test, and Friedman test, which were nonparametric tests, conducted at a 95% significance level. Results: First, in the case of self-esteem, a significant difference was found between the groups, 20.00 points (SD = 5.69) in the control group, and 25.50 points (SD = 3.73) in the experimental group (p = .034). Second, in the case of depression, no statistically significant difference was found in the posttest. Finally, in the case of the horticultural activity evaluation, the scores of most variables gradually and significantly increased during the program [Verbal interaction during activity (p = .006), Self-concept and identity (p = .006), Need-drive adaptation (p < .001), Interpersonal and social relations (p < .001)]. Conclusion: These results support that the horticultural therapy program could help the elderly improve psychological relaxation, emotional stability, and social relationships. In order to generalize the results, it is suggested to increase the number of subjects or conduct additional repetitive experiments in further research.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.515-521
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of horticultural activities with reminiscence materials and singing songs on the ability to recall words and depression in the elderly with mild dementia. A total of 20 sessions of a horticultural therapy program was held once or twice a week from July 14, 2015 to November 3, 2015 for the elderly with mind dementia at the social welfare center in D city. The subjects of this study were 13 women and the mean age was 81.2 years. The ability to recall words significantly improved from $8.6{\pm}1.8$ before the program to $9.4{\pm}0.6$ after the program (p=.012). However, there was no significant difference in the score of depression after the program. Synergistic effects were generated by applying horticultural activities, singing and reminiscence therapy activities simultaneously, and it was effective in recalling memories. As emotional functions were associated with hormones in vivo, there were emotional ups and downs at each session and short-term alternative therapies were not sufficient to completely eliminate neurotoxic substances caused by dementia.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.255-268
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• 2019

Horticultural therapy, as a kind of complementary alternative therapies using nature as a medium, is an intervention method that can be applied to various subjects by utilizing horticultural activities that anyone can enjoy as a leisure activity. This research defined the resilience of individuals as a personal characteristic, and examined differences in the intervention effect of horticultural activities depending on the level of resilience. The results obtained in this study can be utilized in planning a horticultural activity program and setting the purpose and goals of horticultural activity programs. The subjects of this study were divided into the high resilience experimental group (Group A), the low resilience experimental Group (Group C), the high resilience control group (Group B), and the low resilience control group (Group D). The experiment was conducted in the campus of G University from September to November 2017, and the experimental group participated in the program once per week, a total of 10 sessions. The Korean version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, autonomic nervous assessment, and the interpersonal relationship change scale were carried out as pre- and post-assessment. Statistical analysis was performed using a non-parametric test. Group A showed statistically significant positive changes in relaxation of physical tension and stability. In conclusion, those with high resilience showed the higher intervention effects of horticultural activities on physical relaxation and stability than those with low resilience. However, there were some possible limitations in this study. Since the number of subjects was small and subjects were limited to college students, it is impossible to generalize the results of this study. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct follow-up studies to address and overcome these limitations.