Background: Institutionalized older adults have limited ability to engage in horticultural activities that can improve their physical and mental health. Objective: This study explored the effects of a combination of 3D virtual reality and horticultural therapy on institutionalized older adults’ physical and mental health. Methods: The study used a quasi-experimental design. A total of 106 older adults from 2 long-term care facilities were recruited and assigned to the experimental (n=59) or control (n=47) group. The experimental participants received a 9-week intervention. Both groups completed 3 assessments: at baseline, after the intervention, and 2 months later. The outcome variables included health status, meaning in life, perceived mattering, loneliness, and depression. Results: The experimental group demonstrated significantly improved health status (P<.001), meaning in life (P<.001), and perceived mattering (P<.001) as well as significantly reduced depression (P<.001) and loneliness (P<.001) compared to the control group immediately after the intervention; these effects persisted for up to 2 months. Conclusions: This study verified the beneficial effects of a combination of 3D virtual reality and hands-on horticultural therapy on older adults’ health. These results could support the future successful implementation of similar programs for institutionalized older adults on a larger scale.

Background: In Taiwan, which has one of the most rapidly aging populations in the world, it is becoming increasingly critical to promote successful aging strategies that are effective, easily usable, and acceptable to institutionalized older adults. Although many practitioners and professionals have explored aromatherapy and identified its psychological benefits, the effectiveness of combining 3-dimensional (3D) virtual reality and hands-on aromatherapy remains unknown. Objective: A quasi-experimental trial was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of this combination in lowering perceived stress and promoting happiness, sleep quality, meditation experience, and life satisfaction among institutionalized older adults in Taiwan. Methods: A total of 60 institutionalized elderly participants either received the combined intervention or were in a control group. Weekly 2-hour sessions were implemented over 9 weeks. The outcome variables were happiness, perceived stress, sleep quality, meditation experience, and life satisfaction, which were assessed at baseline and after the intervention. Results: Generalized estimating equation (GEE) analyses indicated that the experimental group showed significant post-intervention improvements in terms of scores for happiness, perceived stress, sleep quality, meditation experience, and life satisfaction (n=48; all P<.001). Another GEE analysis showed that the significant improvements in the 5 outcome variables persisted in participants aged 80 years and older (n=35; all P<.001). Conclusions: This is the first trial to explore the effectiveness of a combination of 3D virtual reality and hands-on aromatherapy in improving older adults’ psychological health. The results are promising for the promotion of psychological health in institutionalized older adults. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04324216; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04324216.

Background: Aging societies are a public health concern worldwide. It is critical to develop strategies that harness technology to enhance older adults’ mastery, achievement motives, self-esteem, isolation and depression effectively. Methods: This study aimed to explore the effects of a combination of three-dimensional virtual reality (VR) and hands-on horticultural activities on the psychological well-being of community-dwelling older adults. We used a quasi-experimental design. A total of 62 community-dwelling older adults were recruited and assigned to the experimental (n = 32) and comparison groups (n = 30). The members of the experimental group participated in an 8-week intervention program. Participants of both groups completed before-and-after intervention measurements for outcome variables that included perceived self-esteem, depression, isolation, and mastery and achievement motives, which were analyzed using the generalized estimating equation (GEE). A baseline score of depression was used as an adjustment for the GEE analyses to eliminate the effects of depression on outcomes. Results: After controlling age and gender as confounders, GEE analyses indicated that the experimental group showed significant post-intervention improvements in scores for self-esteem (β = 2.18, P = .005) and mastery (β = 1.23, P = .039), compared to the control group. Conclusions: This study supported a combination of three-dimensional VR and hands-on horticultural activities on community-dwelling older adults to improve self-esteem and mastery. The findings suggest that the future implementation of a similar program would be feasible and beneficial to community-dwelling older adults. Trial registration: The study was posted on www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05087654) on 21/10/2021. It was approved by the Institutional Review Board of En Chu Kong Hospital and performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.