Effects of Agro-healing Program on Hand Function, Grip Strength, and Activities of Daily Living Skills of People with Developmental Disabilities

Effects of Agro-healing Program on Hand Function, Grip Strength, and Activities of Daily Living Skills of People with Developmental Disabilities

Background and objective: Agro-healing (care farming) has developed into a new professional area belonging to the fieldof social horticulture. Agro-healing programs are horticultural activities that serve as social rehabilitation training for thetherapeutic treatment of physical and mental disorders, and have caught the attention of scholars in the area of medicineand psychology. Developmental disabilities reduce cognitive function; people with developmental disabilities (PDD) havedifficulties in establishing social relationships due to their low visual, hearing, and emotional functions. This study aimedto apply a agro-healing program to PDD and suggest clinical rehabilitation therapy methods for them. Methods: This study selected 32 people who understood its purpose and agreed to participate in the program from Aprilto July 2022 at P Lifelong Education Academy in Wanju-gun and H Developmental Rehabilitation Center in Jeonju-si. Therewere 15 subjects in the experimental group and 17 in the control group. Pre-test and post-test were conducted to assesshand function, grip strength, and activities of daily living. The results were statistically analyzed using SPSS version 18.0. Results: In the area of upper extremity function, the agro-healing program significantly improved the ability of both hands(right and left) in the experimental group. Within this group, both hands were showed significantly improvement in the thehand function skills of picking up small common objects. Improvement in activities of daily living skills were also statisticallysignificant in the experimental group. Conclusion: In this study, it was confirmed that when a agro-healing program was applied to PDD, it had positive effectson their hand function, grip strength, and activities of daily living skills. It is expected that this can be fully utilized in clinicalapproaches to rehabilitation therapy for PDD.