Community gardens and psychological well-being among older people in elderly housing with care services: The role of the social environment

With population aging, increasing numbers of elderly people in Japan are expected to enter aged care facilities (ACFs). Although research has shown that access to community gardens (CGs) is generally beneficial to older people's psychological well-being, the mechanisms by which the usage and quality of CGs influence the wellbeing of older adults in ACFs remain insufficiently studied. Therefore, this study aims to explore the associations between garden factors (i.e., garden visit frequency and perceived garden quality) and older adults' psychological well-being outcomes (i.e., positive well-being and self-rated health) and to investigate the mediating role of neighborhood social environment factors (i.e., outing frequency, social participation, perceived neighborhood social cohesion, and perceived neighborhood attachment) in these associations. We conducted a questionnaire survey with 322 older adults from twelve elderly housing with care services (EHCSs) in the Tokyo metropolitan area (TMA) of Japan. The multiple regression models showed that both garden factors were positively associated with positive well-being and self-rated health. The parallel mediation models showed that higher garden visit frequency and perceived garden quality were associated with higher outing frequency and perceived neighborhood social cohesion and, in turn, with higher positive well-being. Moreover, higher garden visit frequency and perceived garden quality were associated with greater social participation and thereby with better self-rated health; higher perceived garden quality was also associated with higher perceived neighborhood attachment and thus with better self-rated health. Our findings elucidate the potential mechanisms underlying the beneficial associations between CGs and the psychological well-being of older adults in ACFs, emphasizing the important role of cultivating friendly social environments in CGs in enhancing healthy aging.