Creating a Sensory Stimulation Garden for Older Persons to Cultivate Happiness: A Hiroshima Experience

Research Objectives: To design an age-friendly sensory stimulation garden (SSG) to cultivate happiness in older persons.

Design: 12 nursing home residents were selected to provide video feedback after a 30 minute, twice weekly exposure to six sections of the newly created SSG. A 60 second facial video and audio recording were taken at day 1, week 3 and week 6. The video recordings were translated from Japanese to English by a dedicated assistant and transcribed.

Setting: We designed and built an SSG at an unused rooftop of Nozomi-No-Sato Nursing Home.With the sensory elements of hard and soft landscaping, colours and textures, this garden encouraged users to touch, smell, and actively experience the garden with all their senses.

Participants: 12 nursing home residents with an average age of 90.2 years were chosen subjects. Residents with moderate to severe dementia and bed ridden condition were not selected.

Interventions: The study subjects were given exposure to the SSG for 30 minutes, twice weekly for six weeks.

Main Outcome Measures: A 60 second facial video and audio recording were taken at day 1, week 3 and week 6. The recordings were translated from Japanese to English by a dedicated assistant and transcribed.

Results: Subjects’ reactions that were recorded during the garden exposure included negative and positive ones..The negative feedback was irritation from sun exposure. The positive ones included excitement about just being out in the garden, recall of past experiences at Miyajima Island and gardening experiences before staying in the nursing home. At the times they were scheduled to be in the garden, they all expressed willingness and eagerness to do so. Some had made suggestions on what they would like to plant next season. Six subjects wanted to participate in harvesting the products of the garden.

Conclusions: SSG exposure in older persons in nursing home fostered feeling of happiness. A study with a larger sample size is planned after COVID-19 restrictions are eased.

Author(s) Disclosures: All authors have no disclosures.