Authors: (including presenting author): :
Cheng, W.S.(1), Wong, S.K.(1), Chan, Y.P.(1), Tam, K.F.S.(2), Yau, W.S.C.(2), Leung, K.C.A.(3), Hui, W.M.(4)
Affiliation: :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital, (2) Department of Medicine, Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital, , (3) Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, (4) Nursing Department, Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital
Keyword 1: :
Occupational Therapy
Keyword 2: :
Therapeutic Horticulture
Keyword 3: :
Palliative Care
Keyword 5: :
Quality-of-life
Keyword 6: :
Horticulture Therapy
Introduction: :
Occupational therapists (OT) play a pivotal role in enabling palliative care (PC) patients to engage in meaningful activities that enhance daily living. Horticultural Therapy (HT) is an evidence-based modality demonstrated the efficiency in pain reduction and enhancement in psychological, spiritual and quality-of-life (Ra, Yun, Choi, 2018). Masel et al. (2018) confirmed that indoor HT significantly improves terminal patients' well-being. The limited psychosocial and spiritual interventions in OT services highlights a research gap.
Objectives: :
This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of Therapeutic Horticulture (TH) Program in PC patients on physical, psychological, spiritual and quality-of-life perspectives.
Methodology: :
It is a single-blind, randomized controlled trial with 30 participants recruited. Experimental group received TH program and treatment-as-usual (TAU), while control group received TAU. Recruitment occurred at PC ward of Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital between December 2024 and April 2025. TH program is a 4-session program, implemented in 2 consecutive weeks with 2 sessions of 30 minutes per week. Inclusion criteria included following simple commands, maintaining Palliative Performance Scale version 2 score at least 40%, and possessing adequate upper limb mobility. Physical outcomes were assessed through pain intensity and sleep satisfaction measured by numeric rating scale (NRS); physiological parameters including blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiratory rate, measured before and after each session; physical symptoms measured by McGill Quality of Life Index–Hong Kong version (MQOL-HK). Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) and MQOL-HK evaluated psychological outcomes. Spiritual outcomes were measured by Herth Hope Index (HHI) and MQOL-HK. Quality-of-life domain was assessed by single quality-of-life score and total score from MQOL-HK. Data were analysed by one-way ANOVA method.
Result & Outcome: :
Experimental group demonstrated statistically significant improvements in respiratory rate (p=0.009), pain intensity (p=0.007), HHI (p=0.018), spiritual domain of MQOL-HK (p=0.014), single quality-of-life score(p=0.036) and total score of MQOL-HK (p=0.012) when compared to control group. Experimental group showed significant improvement in GAD-7 but unable to show significant difference when comparing two groups. Control group exhibited no significant improvement in all domains. Overall, TH program was proven to promote physical, spiritual and quality-of-life aspects in PC patients. Further studies are recommended to investigate on the effectiveness of TH on depression and continue develop non-greenery TH in PC ward.
