Effectiveness of a Dyadic Technology–Enhanced Home-Based Horticultural Therapy on Psychosocial Well-Being Among People With Dementia and Their Family Caregivers: Multimethods Pilot Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Horticultural therapy (HT) has been proposed to be an effective intervention for improving the psychosocial well-being of people with dementia and their caregivers. However, constraints such as limited land space in high-density cities, unstable weather, and lack of gardening experience may hamper the delivery of HT to people with dementia and their caregivers. OBJECTIVE: This pilot study aimed to examine the feasibility and preliminary effects of a technology-enhanced home-based HT for people with dementia and their caregivers using a hydroponic indoor growing system. METHODS: A single-group pre-post design was adopted. A total of 37 dyads of people with dementia and their caregivers participated in 3 weekly face-to-face sessions, followed by 8 weeks of home-based horticultural activities. Outcomes were measured at baseline and postintervention (at week 11), including feasibility outcomes, cognitive function, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and happiness levels of people with dementia. Caregivers' outcomes included positive aspects of caregiving, perceived stress levels, depressive symptoms, caregiver distress, and happiness levels. Semistructured focus group interviews were conducted with the caregivers to further explore their horticultural experience. RESULTS: Intervention feasibility was established with a completion rate of 83.78% and an attrition rate of 2.63% (n=1). Significant improvements were detected in caregiver distress (P<.05) and the happiness level of people with dementia (P<.01). The qualitative findings indicated that HT improved the psychological well-being of both people with dementia and caregivers, enhanced the relationships between caregivers and people with dementia, expanded the caregivers' social networks, and enhanced the autobiographical memory of people with dementia. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study provides evidence on the feasibility of using a hydroponic indoor grower to conduct home-based HT for people with dementia and their caregivers. The findings suggest positive effects on the psychological well-being of both people with dementia and their caregivers. Caregivers reported potential positive effects of HT on the autobiographical memory retrieval of people with dementia. Due to the pilot nature of this study, a control group was not employed. Therefore, large-scale randomized controlled trials are encouraged to further confirm the effectiveness of the intervention. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05577975; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05577975.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".