Frontiers in psychology
Short-term responses across two sequential plant-based activity sessions: an exploratory fixed-order pilot study
By Chang LL, Ku YH, Chuang CY and 1 others.
Abstract
Background
Structured plant-based activities combine natural materials, purposeful manual work, sensory engagement, and social interaction, but direct comparisons of practical formats in community adults remain limited. We characterized short-term responses during two sequential sessions and compared within-session changes.
Methods
Twenty-five adults participated in a single-group, fixed-order pilot study. Session 1 involved horticultural crafting; 1 week later, Session 2 involved balm crafting followed by horticultural crafting. Twenty-three attended both sessions. DASS-21 and STAI-S were principal outcomes; horticultural wellbeing, HRV, and forehead single-channel EEG were exploratory. Within-session changes and complete-case between-session differences were estimated with 95% CIs. Post hoc TOST examined exploratory equivalence bounds.