Psychological and Physiological Changes in the Elderly Due to Agro–healing Activities

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate psychological and physiological changes of elderly affected by agro–healing activities. To meet the purpose, we conducted an agro–healing program with 20 elderly participants (average age 77.6±5.84 men and women) and once a week in total seven sessions. The Korean version of the Brief Encounter Psychosocial Instrument (BEPSI–K), Korean version of the Short Form of Geriatric Depression Scale (SGDS–K), participants’ satisfaction with the program, Salivettes system method, and blood pressure were measured to find out the effects of agro–healing activities. BEPSI–K decreased by 5% in the high stress group although it was not statistically significant. The result of program satisfaction showed that 75% of the participants are satisfied with these activities. We investigated how many and what kind of chronic diseases the participants have had before they joined the program. As a result, hypertension was most common(35.6%), followed by hyperlipidemia, diabetes, arthritis, lumbago, osteoporosis, and heart disease. Systolic blood pressure after the activities decreased significantly from 144.75mmHg (stage 1 hypertension), to 132.90mmHg(prehypertension stage). As a result of analyzing the correlations between general matters such as age, education level, average income of the participants, psychological scale and number of diseases, it was found that participants’ satisfaction had a negative correlation with depression. In conclusion, agro–healing is very useful in relieving stress or lowering blood pressure for the elderly whose most common disease is hypertension. Agro–healing activities are proved to have positive uses in reducing the problems of the modern society with severe issues of the aging population.