Environmental Advances (Jul 2024)
Leisure gardening and health: an overview of reviews in developed countries to inform integrated environmental health impact assessments
Abstract
Objective: In the context of growing land pressure, new uses are projected on contaminated soils. In order to inform a comprehensive health assessment of gardening activities on contaminated land, this work aims to synthesise both quantitative and qualitative findings on the links between gardening, health, and well-being, taking gardeners’ motivations and practices into account. Methods: A rapid overview of reviews was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Both therapeutic and commercial gardening were excluded, as was data from developing countries. Reviews describing at least one link between leisure gardening and health or well-being were included. Pubmed and Web of Science were searched for reviews published up to February 2023. The results were summarised in the form of a conceptual model, to support a comprehensive assessment of the links between health and gardening. Results: Gardening has been shown to impact i) quality of the environment through supporting and providing ecosystem services and raised ecological awareness, ii) mental well-being through stress relief, positive affect and the provision of meaning and purpose, iii) social capital through increased and stronger relationships, iv) physical activity through enjoyable, low-to- moderate-intensity activities, v) diet through improved food literacy and access to fruit and vegetables, and vi) (potentially) economic status through food savings. Gardening is associated with lower Body Mass Index (BMI) and better self-reported health. Evidence on other health indicators is too scarce for conclusions to be drawn. We propose a framework aggregating these results. Discussion: As a health-oriented review of reviews, some data may be missing as a result of topic classification or loss from duplicate removal. Some health determinants and contexts are less well documented; caution is needed when addressing these specific issues. Despite these limitations, the evidence gathered is sufficient to support an assessment of the health benefits of leisure gardening.
