Associations of daily home gardening with depression, mobility, and survival in aged adults

• Main Authors: Chhian HūiLêng, 凌千惠
• Other Authors: Jung-Der Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/51989192580395274341

博士 === 國立成功大學 === 健康照護科學研究所 === 104 === Healthy aging is to adequately maintain functional ability determined by physical and mental capacity, and environment in older age. Mobility limitation is possibly an early reversible indicator of aging, and mortality is the end point. The first study is to explore the potential risk/protective factors of mobility limitations, including mental capacity measured by positive affect, negative affect, and working memory. We further examine the effect of the significant factors on mortality. Approximately five thousand participants aged ≧50 years in 1996 enrolled the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (TLSA) for four waves of interview during the 12 years of follow-up. After adjustment of demographics and current comorbidities, the constructed mixed models with repeated measurements showed that ≧1 times/week gardening consistently predicted subsequent better mobility function. Neither included mental variables nor social relationships showed such an association. We further test if gardening is beneficial for survival. Gardening was defined as growing flowers, gardening, or cultivating potted plants for pleasure with five different frequencies. Daily gardening was associated with a high survival rate (hazard ratio: 0.64, 95% confidence interval: 0.48–0.87) for those with mobility limitations, but without depression at baseline. Chronic or relapsed depression weakened the protection of gardening. For those without mobility limitations and not depressed at baseline, gardening did not show a statistically significant protective effect. Daily gardening for pleasure was associated with reduced mortality for Taiwanese ≧50 years old with mobility limitations but without depression.