Group intervention based on horticultural therapy for older adults living in Turkey: A randomized control trial study

This research was designed as a pretest-posttest experimental study to evaluate the effect of a group intervention based on horticultural therapy on 20 older adults residing in different districts of Istanbul. Participants, aged between 58 and 65, were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. In addition to the Personal Information Form, the Older People's Quality of Life-Brief (OPQOL-Brief) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were administered to the participants as both pretests and posttests. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 22.0 software. At the conclusion of the group intervention, a significant improvement was observed in the total scores of the OPQOL-Brief and DASS-21 among the older adults in the experimental group. These findings suggest that incorporating horticultural therapy practices may be beneficial in enhancing the quality of life and mental well-being of older adults.