Associations of time spent gardening with mental wellbeing and life satisfaction in mid-to-late adulthood

Abstract

There is relatively limited research investigating the mental health benefits of gardening. In this cross-sectional study, survey data from 4,919 middle-aged and older adults (46–80 years, 57% women) from Brisbane, Australia, were used to examine the associations of time spent gardening (0, 1–149 or ≥150 min/week) with indicators of mental wellbeing (measured with the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing scale) and singe-item measure of life satisfaction. We also investigated whether such associations differed between younger and older age groups (≤63 years and >64 years). Multilevel linear regression models were used to control for individual- and area-level confounders (e.g., gender, neighbourhood disadvantage). Of all participants, 37% reported no gardening, 42% reported gardening for 1–149 min weekly, and 21% reported ≥150 min of weekly gardening. Compared to participants who did not engage in gardening, those who gardened for ≥150 min per week were more likely to report better mental wellbeing (β = 0.64, 95% CI [0.35, 0.93], p < .001; range 7–35) and life satisfaction (β = 0.33, 95% CI [0.18, 0.48], p