Gardening may calm people with dementia and get them more involved

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   552 people with dementia took part in 8 studies. Ages and care settings varied from study to study.

2. 02

   What they did

   Groups did plant and garden activities, such as planting, weeding and time in gardens. The other groups had their usual care.

3. 03

   What happened

   Agitation was lower, and time spent in activities higher, after gardening than with usual care, though the studies varied a lot. The paper found no clear evidence on thinking skills, and its numbers for doing nothing do not match. Signs from the paper's bias tests suggest that some small studies with weaker results may be missing.

What the review found

1. HelpedOther outcomes

   People with dementia who gardened were less agitated than those who had usual care.

   Pooled analysis of 5 studies with 470 people · vs those who had usual care · ⚠ signs that small negative studies went unpublished; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited; mixes trials with other kinds of study

2. HelpedFocus

   People who gardened spent more time in activities than those who had usual care.

   Pooled analysis of 3 studies with 142 people · vs those who had usual care · behaviour was recorded · ⚠ the studies disagreed a lot; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited; mixes trials with other kinds of study

Source