Community Gardens Participation in Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles in Urban Settings: the JArDinS Study

The JArDinS study is a quasi-experimental research that aimed at assessing the impact of community garden participation (a natural experiment) in the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sustainable Lifestyles
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Food diary supply; Behavioral: Actigraph; Behavioral: Questionnaire

Detailed Description

The JArDinS study is part of the SURFOOD-Foodscapes project evaluating the relationships between urban foodscape and food styles in Montpellier Metropole (France).

JArDinS consists of a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research and includes an experimental group of new gardeners starting gardening in a community garden in Montpellier and a control group comprising participants from a survey on food behaviors undertaken as part of SURFOOD-Foodscapes project. Participants will be surveyed at enrollment and 12 months later.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 150

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Montpellier, France, 34070
    • INRA

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

residents of Montpellier (France)

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• starting gardening in a community garden (for experimental group)
• no experience in community gardening (for control group)
• willingness to be involved in the study through one year
• age above 18 years
• ability to read in French and live in the city of Montpellier.

Exclusion Criteria:

• past experience of at least one household member in community gardening
• never doing grocery shopping for home

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Case-Control
• Time Perspectives: Prospective

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental group; Gardeners starting gardening in a community garden in Montpellier (France)	Behavioral: Food diary supply; Each participant was issued with a food supply diary to record details of their household food supply and related trips over 1-mo period. Household food supply included food purchases, food gift/donation, and potential crops from the garden. Away-from-home food consumption was not recorded. For each food purchase, participants provided details of date, place of purchase, foods purchased (name, quantity and expense incurred), and trip made (origin/where the trip started, destination/where the trip ended, and mode of transportation). When till receipts were available in grocery stores or supermarkets, participants were asked to collect them in an envelope placed at the end of the food supply diary. To facilitate data entry, all family members were encouraged to help filling out the diary.; Behavioral: Actigraph; Participants were instructed to wear a triaxial accelerometer (wGT3X-BT or wActiSleep-BT, Actigraph, Pensacola, FL, USA) fitted with an elastic strap on right side of the hip for 9 consecutive days, except for bathing and performing activities in the water. The Actigraph was accompanied by an activity logbook in which participants were required to daily record time when awake and sleeping, and, if any, time and duration of workout or device removal; Behavioral: Questionnaire; Participants received by email a link to complete an online questionnaire about mental and social health, sensibility to food waste, and connection with nature
Control Group; Volunteers living in the same neighborhoods but with no experience in community gardening.	Behavioral: Food diary supply; Each participant was issued with a food supply diary to record details of their household food supply and related trips over 1-mo period. Household food supply included food purchases, food gift/donation, and potential crops from the garden. Away-from-home food consumption was not recorded. For each food purchase, participants provided details of date, place of purchase, foods purchased (name, quantity and expense incurred), and trip made (origin/where the trip started, destination/where the trip ended, and mode of transportation). When till receipts were available in grocery stores or supermarkets, participants were asked to collect them in an envelope placed at the end of the food supply diary. To facilitate data entry, all family members were encouraged to help filling out the diary.; Behavioral: Actigraph; Participants were instructed to wear a triaxial accelerometer (wGT3X-BT or wActiSleep-BT, Actigraph, Pensacola, FL, USA) fitted with an elastic strap on right side of the hip for 9 consecutive days, except for bathing and performing activities in the water. The Actigraph was accompanied by an activity logbook in which participants were required to daily record time when awake and sleeping, and, if any, time and duration of workout or device removal; Behavioral: Questionnaire; Participants received by email a link to complete an online questionnaire about mental and social health, sensibility to food waste, and connection with nature

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in healthiness of household food supply	The nutritional quality of household food supply was estimated using two indicators of nutritional quality : the mean adequacy ratio (MAR) and the mean excess ratio (MER)	at baseline and exactly 12 month later
Change in physical activity energy	Physical activity energy expenditure were estimated directly from raw triaxial accelerometry data using a model which combines an automatic activity-recognition algorithm with an activity-specific count-based model	at baseline and exactly 12 month later
Change in mental well-being	Assessed by the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. WEMWBS is a 14-item scale rated on a 5-point Likert-type, in which all items are worded positively and address aspects of positive mental health. Total score range from 14-70, with higher scores indicating a higher level of mental well-being.	at baseline and exactly 12 month later
Change in social isolation	Assessed by the UCLA Loneliness Scale. UCLA-3 is a 20-item scale (11 positive and 9 negative) rated on a 4-point Likert-type. Total score range from 20-70, with higher scores greater feelings of loneliness.	at baseline and exactly 12 month later
Change in environmental impact of household's food supply	Greenhouse gas emissions (in g CO2eq), atmospheric acidification (g SO2eq) and marine eutrophication (in g Neq) related to household's food supply were computed using estimates from the French 'SUStable' table.	at baseline and exactly 12 month later
Change in environmental impact of household's food trip (in g CO2eq)	For each food trip, the distance traveled specifically for food purchase will be multiplied by energy source consumption of the transportation used, and by the corresponding GHGE factor of source consumption. GHGE related to food trip will be calculated as the sum of all food trips during the period of data collection.	at baseline and exactly 12 month later
Change in sensibility to food waste	Assessed by the Sensibility to food waste scale, a 8-item scale rated on a 7-point Likert-type, that measure in which extent participants attach importance to waste and are emotionally affected by it. Total score range from 7-56, a higher total scores denote greater sensibility to food waste.	at baseline and exactly 12 month later
Change in connection with nature	Affective, cognitive, and experiential aspects of individuals' connection to nature was assessed by the Nature Relatedness Scale (NRS). NRS is a 21-item scale rated on a 5-point Likert-type. Total score range from 5-105, a higher total scores denote greater nature connectedness.	at baseline and exactly 12 month later
Change in household food supply expenditure	Monthly household food expenditure and the contribution of each food group and subgroup to total food expenditure were estimated using food expenses data collected in the food supply diary.	at baseline and exactly 12 month later

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Age (in year) of each member of the household	Participants were asked to report the age of each member each adult of the household.	at baseline
Gardening experience prior to the project	Participants were asked about their experiences and perceived competence in gardening.	at baseline
Gender of each member of the household	Participants were asked to report the gender of each adult of the household	at baseline
Household income	Participants indicated their net income bracket of the household (by month).	at baseline
Education level of each adult of the household	Participants were asked to report the higest education level achieved by each adult of the household.	at baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Tharrey M, Sachs A, Perignon M, Simon C, Mejean C, Litt J, Darmon N. Improving lifestyles sustainability through community gardening: results and lessons learnt from the JArDinS quasi-experimental study. BMC Public Health. 2020 Nov 26;20(1):1798. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-09836-6. Erratum In: BMC Public Health. 2021 Jan 4;21(1):15.
• Tharrey M, Perignon M, Scheromm P, Mejean C, Darmon N. Does participating in community gardens promote sustainable lifestyles in urban settings? Design and protocol of the JArDinS study. BMC Public Health. 2019 May 17;19(1):589. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6815-0.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 1, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 10, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): February 10, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 25, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 1, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): October 3, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 11, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 10, 2020
• Last Verified: February 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: physical activity; diet; environment; nature; well being; loneliness; food prices; natural experiment; accelerometry
• Other Study ID Numbers: JArDinS

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No