SynthesisBMC public health2025
Effect of gardening activities on domains of health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Dose-response efficacy of horticultural therapy for geriatric depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Health effects of plants, light, and natural elements of biophilic interventions in confined settings: a systematic review.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Pooled it
- The Therapeutic Home Environment for Chronic Diseases: A Transdisciplinary Ecosystem for Achieving Migraine Freedom and Managing Comorbid Anxiety, Insomnia, and Chronic Pain.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Curcumin modulates NF-κB and Nrf2 pathways to mitigate inflammation, oxidative stress, and virulence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa-infected bronchial epithelial cells.Archives of microbiology · 2026Article
- The role of horticultural therapy in the clinical rehabilitation of patients with depression: A scoping review.The Journal of international medical research · 2026Article
- Gardening, healthy aging, and longevity: Longitudinal evidence from 25 years of the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921.Journal of environmental psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- 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
- Urban riverbank green spaces as therapeutic environments: Examining the psychosocial benefits of square dance in aging populations in China.SSM - population health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGardening activities became increasingly popular in health promotion. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the effect of gardening-based training or horticultural therapy on domains of health, including mental, physical and general health.
methodThe MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane, EMBASE, Greenfile, CINAHL, WHO ICTRP, and Clinicaltrials.gov databases were searched from their inception to September 2023. Peer-reviewed, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or experimental studies with intervention and control groups in English that evaluated the effect of gardening activity or horticultural therapy on health domains. Adult participants living with chronic conditions were selected. Author, year, location, sample size, participant characteristics, study characteristics, type of intervention, measurement time points, measured outcomes, measurements, effect sizes and p values were extracted.
resultsTwenty-three studies (n = 4535) with 13 RCTs and 10 quasi-experimental studies were included. The participants had a mean age of 54.39 years, and the majority of them were females (63.25%). Types of chronic conditions included physical dysfunction, pain, obesity, anxiety, depression, hypertension, cognition disfunction, etc. The effects of gardening activities were compared with those of the control by categorizing health into three domains: mental health (SMD = -0.31; 95% CI: -0.97, 0.34), physical health (SMD = -0.25; 95% CI: -0.62, 0.11) and general health (SMD = -0.08; 95% CI: -0.20, 0.05).
conclusionsGardening-based training programs have a small-to-medium effect on mental health in people living with chronic conditions. Relatively small effects were found for physical health and general health. Future research is recommended to better understand the impact of gardening activities on health.
trial registrationThis systematic review is registered to PROSPERO ( https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ ) with registration ID: CRD42024504948.
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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.