Abstract
We recruited 162 healthy elderly adults to determine the thermal, physiological, and psychological effects of horticultural activities (flower arranging, transplanting, and rubble masonry) in outdoor open spaces. We linked these to local climate conditions, physiology, and comfort through a questionnaire survey. The results showed that: (1) the neutral physiological equivalent temperature (NPET) before the horticultural activities were 22.18 ℃ for flower arranging, 23.67 ℃ for transplanting, and 20.78 ℃ for rubble masonry, while the NPET decreased to 18.53 ℃, 20.73 ℃ and 18.04 ℃ (respectively) after activities. (2) The heart rate and blood oxygen saturation changed significantly (p < 0.05) only after rubble masonry. (3) The average positive affect (PA) scores increased after flower arranging by 4.83, transplanting by 3.30, and rubble masonry by 4.00. (4) After activities, the thermal sensation vote was mainly influenced by globe temperature (41.36%), air temperature (33.47%), and wind speed (25.17%). Thermal comfort vote could be promoted because of 37.35% of an increasing positive and 21.20% of decreasing negative emotion.
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Data Availability
A data availability statement that data will be made available on request was provided by the article authors.
Abbreviations
- T a :
-
Air temperature
- RH :
-
Relative humidity
- V a :
-
Wind speed
- T mrt :
-
Mean radiant temperature
- T g :
-
Globe temperature
- G :
-
Global radiation
- SVF:
-
Sky view factor
- TS:
-
Tree-shaded square
- LP:
-
Landscape pavilion
- OS:
-
Open square
- OTC:
-
Outdoor thermal comfort
- TSV:
-
Thermal sensation vote
- MTSV:
-
Mean TSV
- TCV:
-
Thermal comfort vote
- PANAS:
-
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule
- PA:
-
Positive affect
- NA:
-
Negative affect
- PET:
-
Physiological equivalent temperature
- NPET:
-
Neutral PET
- NPETR:
-
Neutral PET range
- SpO2 :
-
Blood oxygen saturation
- HR:
-
Heart rate
- BP:
-
Blood pressure
- SBP:
-
Systolic blood pressure
- DBP:
-
Diastolic blood pressure
- ET:
-
Eardrum temperature
- VIF:
-
Variance inflation factor
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51708451) and Tang Scholar in Northwest A&F University.
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M. Du: Investigation, Data curation, Writing-Original draft preparation. Y. Wang: Investigation, Resources. Y. Zhang: Investigation, Data curation. X. Nian: Investigation, Data curation. B. Hong: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing-Reviewing and Editing, Supervision.
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Du, M., Wang, Y., Zhang, Y. et al. How outdoor horticultural activities affect elderly adults’ thermal, physiological and psychological responses: a field study. Int J Biometeorol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02663-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02663-z