Nature-based group activities can reduce loneliness, improve sleep and cognition, and increase a sense of connection to nature in older adults living in care homes.

Focusing on nature, including outdoor excursions and contacts with the natural world, the activities boosted wellbeing and health through peer support and activity content.
“Group activities once a week over just a nine-week period can already reduce loneliness in research subjects and improve their sleep and memory, as well as their sense of connection to nature. Our study also highlighted the need for older adults in care homes to visit outdoor environments and nature more often,” says Professor Kaisu Pitkälä, Director of the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care at the University of Helsinki.

Frail and lonely older adults benefitted from natural environments

The researchers were surprised by the good results despite that the subjects had multiple diseases and that the conditions for nature-based activities were sometimes challenging, in terms of both weather and transport, as all subjects travelled to the excursions in wheelchairs and by accessible taxis. According to Pitkälä, activities over a longer duration would only have bolstered the outcome.
The researchers trained 52 group instructors in Helsinki-based care homes, which have subsequently disseminated the nature-based practices.

“Frail older adults have a great deal of resources, and by boosting those we support their wellbeing and health. More than half of care home residents experience loneliness, a risk factor comparable with tobacco and obesity for health and memory. Loneliness is not something you can see on the outside, you have to ask older adults about it,” Pitkälä notes.

The Circle of Friends scheme of the Finnish Association for the Welfare of Older People has attracted over 13,000 adults to group activities in more than 100 municipalities. After official activities have ended, 65% of the groups have continued independently.

“The study is an important step in drugless therapies, relatively few studies on which have been conducted in frail older adults with impaired memory who are in 24-hour care,” Pitkälä sums up.
The study involved 319 older adults living in care homes who experienced loneliness, with an average age of 83 years. A little over half of the participants had memory disorders. They were randomised into two groups, one of which took part in the nature-based group activities.

The RECETAS project, funded by the EU and carried out by the University of Helsinki and HUS Helsinki University Hospital, investigated the loneliness experienced by older adults living in care homes and 24-hour service housing and the effectiveness of nature-based group activities. The study is part of the EU-funded RECETAS project, where the Circle of Friends model is introduced to various target groups focusing on nature-based experiences in six countries.