The Effect of Gardening Activities on Anxiety and Psychosocial Symptoms of Hospitalized Children

October 22, 2024 updated by: Elif BULUT, Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University
The experience of hospitalization in childhood can often lead to traumatic consequences. Various practices (play, art therapy, music therapy, etc.) are used to help children cope with this process. In recent years, attention has been drawn to nature-based approaches in addition to existing practices. Within the scope of this approach, this study was planned in a parallel group (experimental-control) randomized controlled experimental design to determine the effect of garden activities on anxiety levels and psychosocial symptoms of hospitalized children aged 6-12 years. Hypotheses of the study H1: The gardening activities program applied to hospitalized children; H1a: There is an effect on children's anxiety. H1b: There is an effect on psychosocial symptoms of children. In this direction, the population of the study will consist of children between the ages of 6-12 in the children's ward of University Research and Application Hospital. The sample size determined as a result of G*power analysis was found as control (18) and intervention (18). The research will be conducted between September 2024 and June 2025. 'Child Descriptive Information Form', "Child Follow-up Form", "Child Anxiety Scale-Conditioning" and "Psychosocial Symptoms Diagnostic Scale for Hospitalized Children" will be used for data collection. The data collection process consists of three stages: pre-intervention period, intervention period and post-intervention period. Children in the intervention group will have three sessions of gardening activities within the scope of the 'Gardening Activities Program' during their hospitalization. Children in the control group will receive services within the scope of the routine treatment and nursing care protocol of the clinic during hospitalization.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

36

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • The age of the children is between 6-12 years old
  • Hospitalization due to an acute medical diagnosis
  • Hospitalization for at least 3 days
  • Approval of the child's participation in the session by the responsible doctor
  • The child is conscious and fully orientated
  • Voluntariness of the child and parent to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Hospitalization for more than 7 days
  • No previous hospitalization experience
  • High-risk drug use
  • Having a chronic disease that suppresses the immune system
  • Having a special condition that prevents him/her from participating in garden activities (physical, mental disability)
  • Having skin conditions that prevent them from participating in garden activities
  • Plant allergy

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Control Group
Children in this group will receive services within the scope of the routine treatment and nursing care protocol of the clinic during hospitalisation. No intervention will be applied to the control group of this study until the discharge process takes place. However, on the day of discharge, the children in the control group and their parents will be informed about the garden activities by the researcher. A single session gardening activity will be planned according to the request of the child and parent. During this session, children will be given the opportunity to choose a plant and a pot, and then planting, watering and creating a name card will be carried out.
Other: Clinical routine treatment and nursing care protocol
Within the scope of the clinic routine treatment and nursing protocol; the decision to hospitalize the child, orientation to the clinic, execution of hospitalization paperwork, room placement, invasive intervention and treatment procedures are carried out. Treatment and care hours are revised according to individual order characteristics; 08.00-20.00, 08.00-16.00-00.00, 06.00-12.00-18.00-00.00 are planned considering the time order. 13.00-15.00 are the visiting hours. The child is not allowed to leave the clinic except for any medical purpose. No intervention will be applied to the control group of this study until the discharge process takes place.
Experimental: Intervention Group

Children in this group will have three sessions of gardening activities within the scope of the 'Gardening Activities Programme' during their hospitalisation. The sessions will take place only with the active participation of the child participant and the researcher (EB); there will be one child participant in each session. The duration of the sessions will be between 30-45 minutes. The sessions in the 'Garden Activities Programme' regarding the session planning of the activities to be carried out with children are as follows.

Session 1: Pot Preparation and Plant Selection Session 2: Creating a Plant Arrangement Session 3: Care and Illustration
Other: Garden Activities Program
When we look at the studies evaluating the effect of gardening activities on hospitalized children; it is seen that mostly children's opinions about therapeutic gardens are included and studies involving active gardening activities are limited. Shao et al. (2020) gave hospitalized children a task about garden plants and made them full this task through active participation and mobile games. However, it is seen that the gardening activity applied in this study was limited to a 5-minute task. The most important difference of our study from these studies is that a standardized gardening activity program will be applied to hospitalized children during their hospitalization and the active participation of the child will be ensured.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes in children's anxiety as a result of the implementation of the Garden Activity Programme
Time Frame: Will be assessed every day from the day of admission (day 1) to the 7th day of hospitalization.
Child Anxiety Scale-Dispositional (CAS-D): The Child Anxiety Scale-State (CAS-D) is shaped like a thermometer with a bulb at the bottom and horizontal lines with intervals going upwards. To measure the child's state anxiety, the child is asked to tick 'what he/she is feeling at the moment'. The score can range from 0-10. A high scale score indicates that the child's anxiety is increasing.
Will be assessed every day from the day of admission (day 1) to the 7th day of hospitalization.
Changes in children's psychosocial symptoms as a result of the implementation of the Garden Activity Program
Time Frame: It will be assessed pre-intervention (1st day of hospitalization) and post-intervention (7th day of hospitalization).
Psychosocial Symptoms Diagnostic Scale for Hospitalized Children: The scale consists of 24 items and five sub-dimensions (anxiety, hopelessness, communication difficulties, anger and aggression, regression). The scale has a 3-point likert-type scale, 'never: 0, sometimes: 1, often: 2'. The score obtained from the scale varies between 0-48. A high scale score indicates that the child hospitalized in the clinic has psychosocial problems.
It will be assessed pre-intervention (1st day of hospitalization) and post-intervention (7th day of hospitalization).

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

December 1, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 18, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 22, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

October 24, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 24, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 22, 2024

Last Verified

October 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • TOGU_HEM_EB_001

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

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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