The effects of gardening on quality of life in people with stroke

BACKGROUND: Compared with traditional rehabilitation, gardening has been viewed as a more occupation-based intervention to help patients improve functional performance. However, there is still a need for evidence-based research into what factors interact to create the beneficial effects of gardening for people who have sustained a cerebral vascular accident (CVA). OBJECTIVE: To explore how plant, gender, and the time after stroke onset influenced improvements in the quality of life of patients in a gardening program. METHODS: One treatment of tending short-term plants, and another treatment of tending long-term plants were compared. Quality of life improvement was evaluated according to three factors: plant, gender, and the time after stroke onset. The data were analyzed with 2k replicated factorial designs. RESULTS: The 2k factorial design with replication indicated significant effects on both the social role and the family role. For the social role, the interaction of plant and gender difference was significant. For the family role, the significant effects were found on interaction of plant with both gender and the time after stroke onset. CONCLUSIONS: Tending plants with different life cycles has varied effects on the quality of life of people who have sustained a CVA. Factors related to gender and the time after stroke onset influenced role competency in this sample.