원예활동이 갱년기 도시주부의 스트레스 경감에 미치는 효과

Effect of Horticultural Activity on Reduction of Stress in Climacteric Urban Housewives

This study aimed to find out the effects horticultural activities have in reducing stress for climacteric housewives going through their menopause who are living in an urban area. The dependent variables were self emotion appraisal, satisfaction wide life scale, and the family inventory of life event and changes. The measurement of the automatic nervous system activity was done via one-group pre and post test. The study participants were 12 urban housewives taking an educational program at an agricultural technology center operated by G City. The measurements were taken once a week over three months, and the average age of the study participants was 49.9. The effects of horticultural activities were measured by dividing into before and after starting the program. SPSS 14.0 Windows program was used for the analysis of the collected data. For the dependent variables, ANCOVA was used, and for differences according to measurement periods, t-test was used. For the verification of the reliability of the tool, Cronbach’α value was used, and for the data of the autonomic nervous system activity balance test, paired t-test was used for the analysis. Analysis of the self emotion appraisal showed that among specific areas, the state anger, the state expression, and the state depression were decreased, which showed statistically significant results in terms of improvement. The satisfaction wide life scale and the family inventory of life event and changes were also improved, which showed high statistical significance. Results of analysis of the autonomic nervous system activity showed that mean purse rate was statistically reduced, which showed positive improvement, and the results indicating resistance to external stress also improved statistically. There were significant differences in fatigue and stress areas. From this, it was shown that horticultural activities reduce purse rate and increase low frequency and high frequency activities, which is effective in reducing anxiety and improving resistance against stress for climacteric urban housewives.