Classification of Horticultural Therapy Activity based on Activity Preference of University Students

Horticultural therapy is a horticultural activity using flower and plants as mediators to achieve the therapeutic treatment benefits, and consists of both passive activities and active activities as essential elements. Therefore, this study was conducted to classify the types of activity used for horticultural therapy by surveying 301 university students from March 7 to August 28, 2017 about their knowledge and preference for horticultural therapy activities. As a result of the questionnaire, 94.0% of student participants answered that they have heard about horticulture. But only 48.8% of participants had knowledge of horticultural therapy and there is still a lot of insufficiency in recognition of horticultural therapy. However, after taught what the horticultural therapy is, 55.6% of participants showed positive willingness to participate in horticulture therapy activities. Next, comparison analysis was made by investigating preliminary research papers and factor analysis was performed by examining the preference of the participants for 28 types of selected horticultural therapy activities. Finally, after analyzing characteristics of factors, this study proposes six categories of activities such as “Indoor gardening”, “Outdoor gardening”, “Crafts and Cooking”, “Directly feeling nature”, “Indirectly sharing nature”, and “Nature learning and collecting” to be used as major factors in horticulture therapy. In the limitation of this research, these preferences may differ depending on the age and occupation of the subjects, so in the future study, additional research will be necessary.