• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.573-584
• /
• 2021

Background and objective: This study was conducted with 10 men and women in their 50s-60s to investigate the effect of agro-healing activities on the improvement of mental health. Methods: The experimental group participated in total 8 sessions of agro-healing activities, once a week for 2 hours each, at a care farm in Wanju-gun. Physiological measurements were taken with an electroencephalogram (EEG), Salivettes samples, and blood pressure before and after the activities. Results: As a result of analyzing the changes in brainwaves of the experimental group before and after agro-healing activities, relative slow alpha (RSA), relative fast alpha (RFA), and ratio of alpha to high beta (RAHB), the indices of stability and relaxation, increased after the program with statistical significance. Also, the ratio of SMR to theta (RST) of the attention index increased on the right frontal lobes, temporal lobes, and left occipital lobes, and relative low beta (RLB) increasd on the frontal lobes, temporal lobes, and occipital lobes after the program with statistical significance. The sympathetic nervous system activity, which is a stress index, decreased after the program, whereas the parasympathetic nervous system activity, which is a relaxation index, increased, showing statistical significance (p < .05). As a result of analyzing the changes in blood pressure after the program, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure decreased from prehypertension to normal blood pressure, showing statistical significance. SThese results indicate that participating in agro-healing activities at a care farm for the 50-60s helps reduce stress and improve stability and relaxation as well as attention. Conclusion: Thus, developing and applying customized agro-healing programs for participants will have a positive effect on brain activity and psychophysiological improvement by relieving tension and stress. However, there are limitations in generalizing the results of this study since most of agro-healing farms have low accessibility that leads to a low level of participants.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.267-276
• /
• 2020

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.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.355-364
• /
• 2019

This study was conducted to find out the effects of agro-healing activities and strolling on the physiological conditions of patients with chronic metabolic diseases. A total of 11 subjects participated in agro-healing activities, and their average age was 49.6±11.3. Changes in their salivary cortisol were compared and analyzed before and after participating in the agro-healing activity program, and it was found that the stress hormone decreased after participating in the program. Differences in brain wave between before and after participating in agro-healing activities and strolling were measured, and the ratio of alpha to high beta (RAHB) of subjects increased in most of the measured points after participating in agro-healing activities. In addition, the increase in the value in the temporal lobe (T3) that controls mortor skills and occipital lobe (O2) that controls visual functions indicates that the activities were effective in improving relaxation and stability. The relative low beta (RLB) power spectrum of subjects also statistically significantly decreased in the right occipital lobe (O2) that controls visual functions, the relative mid beta (RMB) and relative high beta (RHB) power spectrum decreased in the left temporal lobe (T3) and the right occipital lobe (O2). These results indicate that the activities were effective in improving relaxation under no stress and tension. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure of subjects after participating in agro-healing activities decreased from the prehypertension level to the normal level. These results indicate that horticultural activities and visual elements in healing farms, such as agro-healing activities and strolling, have positive impacts on patients with chronic metabolic diseases accompanied with diabetes or high blood pressure by increasing the brain activity and psycho-physiological conditions of participants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.29-35
• /
• 2023

Although Due to industrial development and urbanization, the number of schools closing due to a decrease in the school-age population is increasing due to the phenomenon of relocation from farming and fishing villages. Closing schools are used as social and cultural facilities, or they are used to generate income by providing education and experiences. Agro-healing is an activity that promotes psychological, social, and physical health by using rural resources. By reflecting the Agro-healing in the services operated by the closed school, the perception of the provision of the Agro-healing service was investigated as a way to provide a therapeutic service to visitors and to increase the utilization of the closed school. The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions, a total of 5 questions related to demographic information, a total of 5 questions related to the perception of agro-healing activities in closed school facilities. As a result, 347 people participated in the survey. The higher the awareness of agro-healing, the need for a agro-healing expert, the satisfaction with the use of rural closed school facilities, and the willingness to participate in agro-healing activities, the higher the awareness that the provision of agro-healing services was necessary by the state. Theses results are expected to be useful as basic to data to solve the diverse limitation in rural closed school and agro-healing activities.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2023

This study aims to examine the effect of healing program using insect. For the insect resources, the program uses 3 species of emotional insects. The subjects were a total of 29, the elderly with mild dementia and adults with developmental disabilities in the facility. The activities are 9 programs in total and each program takes 2 hours once a week. For data collection, we measured a blood pressure, stress level using autonomic nervous system activity, and scale of happiness, depression and insomnia by a survey. The datas were collected every week before and after the program. As a result of paired-sample t-test analysis, the participants of the agro-healing program using insects had positive effects as follows: reducing a depression, relieving a symptom of insomnia and stabilizing a blood pressure. Through the results of this study, it was possible to confirm the positive effects of the agro-healing program using insects. If farms lead agro-healing program using insects on their own, it could be expected to contribute to improve the quality of life through agriculture as well as to improve the farms' income.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.15-29
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the exhibition displays and events of the Agro-healing Experience Hall in the Agricultural Technology Exhibition 2018 on satisfaction and revisit intention of visitors. A survey was conducted on visitors of the Agro-healing Experience Hall and the responses of 274 visitors excluding 26 cases with inappropriate responses were analyzed. For psychological measurement, the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), Profile of Mood States (POMS), level of plant gardening experience, satisfaction and loyalty were measured. There was a significant difference among age groups in all four factors of the PRS (repose, fascination, coherence, and legibility). In the case of education level, there was a significant difference in the three factors (repose, fascination, and legibility). In addition, average monthly income showed a significant difference among groups in the two factors (fascination and coherence). As a result of analyzing the mood states of visitors for the exhibition events of the Agro-healing Experience Hall, there was a significant difference among age groups only in the case of vigor (p < .05). As a result of analyzing the correlation between the level of plant gardening activities (3 factors) and PRS (4 factors) in the exhibition events of the Agro-healing Experience Hall, plant preference tendency and plant-related event showed a high positive correlation of 0.5 or more with repose of the PRS factors. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of the level of plant gardening activities, PRS and POMS on the satisfaction and loyalty of visitors. As a result, it was found that in terms of relative explanatory power over independent variables affecting satisfaction and revisit intention, fascination had the greatest effect, followed by vigor, fatigue, and occupation (company employee). The results of this study suggest that exhibition events of the Agro-healing Experience Hall affect repose, fascination or vigor of visitors, and thus can be used positively to increase satisfaction and revisit intention of visitors.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.909-936
• /
• 2013

This study investigated definition of care farming in which advanced countries in agricultural industry such as Netherlands and Belgium increase their interest and investment, and established a strategy for settlement and development of care farming industry in Korea. For achieving purpose of the study, literature review was implemented to analyze policy, system, related law, workforce of advanced countries in care farming, and experts' conference which consists of 9 representatives such as professors, researchers in areas of agriculture, health, education, horticulture, animal-assisted therapy was implemented. Also survey was conducted targeting 165 people of practitioners in care farming industry. For the result, the concept of care farming in Korea was defined as 'Industry and activity which promotes psychological social physical cognitive health of every Korean people by utilizing agricultural resources(plants, livestock, rural environment, rural culture) or related activity and output', and the purpose, resources, targets of care farming was determined by the definition.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.601-609
• /
• 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
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.137-152
• /
• 2021

Background and objective: This study was carried out to investigate and analyze the preference for plant fragrance and the psychological effects of a agro-healing activity in 101 firefighters aged 39.71 ± 10.94. Methods: For the psychological evaluation, post-traumatic stress symptoms, Korean occupational stress scale short form (KOSS-SF), emotional intelligence, and job satisfaction were surveyed on the Likert scale. For the preference for plant fragrances, 20 ㎕ of commercially available essential oils from four plant species (Mentha spp., Lavandula spp., Citrus limon, C. sinensis) were absorbed into each test paper and provided to the participants. Results: The rate of post-traumatic stress symptoms was high at 37.6% of the firefighters surveyed.. C. limon fragrance had the highest preference among the four plant fragrances, followed by C. sinensis > Mentha spp. > Lavandula spp. with statistically significant difference (F = 14.256, p < .001). The lower their age, income, and position, and higher the education level, the higher the preference for plant fragrances. And the administrative group had higher preference for plant fragrances than field group. In addition, as a result of examining the correlation between job satisfaction, preference for plant fragrance, post-traumatic stress, emotional intelligence, and job stress for fire-fighters, the higher the job satisfaction, the higher the fragrance preference and emotional intelligence, and the lower the post-traumatic stress and job stress. Conclusion: Therefore, installing a garden using botanical fragrances at workplaces that firefighters can easily access will improve job satisfaction and relieve stress. It can be concluded that applying the fragrance of plants to the healing farming activities at the fire-fighter's workplace can increase the usefulness of the healing activities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.57-64
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the general characteristics of the elderly who participate in the planting activities of weekend farms and the effect of the planting activity levels on the subjective health, depression, and human relationships of the elderly. Data were collected and analyzed using subjective health, depression, and human relationship measures that can represent physical, mental, and social health. The main results were as follows. The educational level, the status of spouses, and the number of diseases of the general characteristics of the elderly who participated in the weekend farm showed significant differences in all subjective health, depression, and human relationships. Plant cultivation activity level was positively correlated with the subjective health of the elderly and had a significant effect. The higher the level of plant cultivation activity, the more positively it affected the human relationship. Plant cultivation activity was negatively correlated with the depression of the elderly.