SynthesisSystematic reviews2024
The impact of gardening on well-being, mental health, and quality of life: an umbrella review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Systematic reviews, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Green spaces, blue spaces and human health: an updated umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Restoring well-being through nature: a mixed-methods study of co-designed therapeutic gardening among people experiencing homelessness.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Gardening, healthy aging, and longevity: Longitudinal evidence from 25 years of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921.Journal of environmental psychology · 2026Article
- The role of horticultural therapy in the clinical rehabilitation of patients with depression: A scoping review.The Journal of international medical research · 2026Article
- Trends of changes in physical activity of older adults in Poland 2009-2019. The results of the representative population-based PolSenior2 study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Urban and Home-Based Vegetable Gardening Practices in Ethiopia: A Review on Challenges, Opportunities, and Perspectives.TheScientificWorldJournal · 2026Review
- Agricultural activities maintain vigor and plant-based protein intake in older adults with type 2 diabetes: A feasibility study.JAR life · 2026Article
- The mediating role of activity attachment in the relationship between gardening frequency, leisure orientation, and mental wellbeing: evidence from resident gardeners with implications for future gardening tourism.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Garden on the Go: A Feasibility Study of a Gardening Program to Support Mental Health and Resilience in Youth with Adverse Childhood Experiences.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Green Landscapes of Care: The Potential of Gardens to Support the Well-Being of Asylum Seekers in Ireland.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Effectiveness of social and therapeutic horticulture for reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGardening and horticultural therapy (HT) has been widely recognised as a multicomponent approach that has affected a broad range of health and well-being outcomes. The aim of this umbrella review and meta-analysis was to compare the findings of previous reviews on the impact of multiple gardening interventions and gardening attributes on different well-being constructs.
methodsElectronic databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, the Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar were searched from inception to December 2022. Interventional and observational reviews were eligible for inclusion in this umbrella review. Outcome measures included mental well-being, health status and quality of life. The key exposure variables were gardening and horticultural therapy. Narrative synthesis was used to evaluate the overall impact of gardening and HT on study outcomes. For a subsample of studies with available quantitative data, a random effect meta-analysis was conducted.
resultsThis umbrella review included 40 studies (10 interventional studies, 2 observational studies, and 28 mixed interventional and observational studies). The reviewed studies reported an overall positive impact of gardening activities on several measures of mental well-being, quality of life, and health status. Meta-analysis showed a significant and positive effect of gardening and HT activities on well-being (effect size (ES) 0.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23, 0.87, p < 0.001).
conclusionsEvidence from observational and interventional studies supports a positive role for gardening and HT activities on well-being and general health. Interventional studies with horticultural-based therapies were effective in improving well-being and quality of life both in the general population and vulnerable subgroups. The high degree of heterogeneity in the included studies cautions against any direct clinical implications of the study findings.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.