Benefits of Community Gardening Activity in Obesity Intervention: Findings from F.E.A.T. Programme

This study determines the beneficial effect of community gardening activity in obesity intervention among overweight and obese adults in semi-urban area. The study was one of the activities in Arus Perdana Research Grant for obesity intervention, The Fit, Eat, Active and Training (F.E.A.T) programme. The study employs a pre-post quasi experimental design assigned into intervention (n=31) and control (n=30) group respectively. The intervention group followed a series of activities for 12 weeks of intervention. In one of the activities, subjects received a nutrition counselling session with nutritionist on daily vegetables intake, while agriculture officers demonstrated the procedure of producing fertilizers from household waste and vegetable gardening techniques. The subjects were divided into groups which planted their own vegetables at the space around community hall and in the pot during the intervention period. There was significant difference (p<0.05) for vegetable intake after 12-week intervention, when 1.8 +/- 0.7 serving size for the intervention group is compared to 0.7 +/- 0.5 serving size for the control group. The results reported noteworthy reductions (p<0.05) in body weight with -3.5% reduction for the intervention group which was involved in gardening as compared to -0.4% reduction for the control group. Moreover, BMI reductions were observed to be -4.1% and -0.9% and waist circumference reductions were -9.9% and -4.0% for intervention group and control group respectively. In conclusion, the community gardening program is fund to be a successful activity in improving daily vegetable intake, as well as reducing the BMI and waist circumference among obese adults in semi-urban community.