An Awareness and Demand Survey on Agro-Healing Among Adults with Symptoms of Stress

Background and objective: This study conducted an awareness and demand survey on agro-healing for the purpose of preparing basic data for developing agro-healing programs and improving service quality to heal the mental health of people with symptoms of stress.Methods: In order to conduct this study, a questionnaire consisting of 23 items was developed to investigate the awareness and demand for agro-healing. The survey was conducted online on adults in their 20s and 30s showing symptoms of stress. A total of 225 copies of the questionnaire were collected, and 183 copies were finally used for analysis.Results: The survey results showed that 66.1% of the respondents were 'not aware at all' and 33.9% were 'aware' of agro-healing. Regarding the experience of participating in agro-healing, 68.3% of the respondents said they had 'no experience' and 31.7% said they had 'experience'. Among the respondents with experience, the most common purpose of participation was 'experience' (31.0%), followed by 'education' (27.6%), 'leisure' (20.7%), 'healing' (10.3%), and 'recreation' (5.1%). The intent to participate in agro-healing was rated on a 5-point Likert scale, and 'forest healing' scored 4.0 points, 'horticultural therapy' 3.8 points, 'animal-assisted therapy' 3.8 points, and 'agricultural work healing' 3.2 points. The points to be improved when using the agro-healing service are 'lack of various promotional contents' (73.8%), 'lack of education and training programs' (13.7%), 'lack of partnership with the government' (7.1%), and 'lack of consideration for the underprivileged' (5.5%). 74.3% of the respondents said it is necessary to implement and systemize agro-healing policies, 21.3% said it was 'moderate', and 4.3% said it was 'unnecessary', indicating that there was high awareness of the need to implement agro-healing service policies.Conclusion: This study is expected to provide basic data for effective agro-healing services to treat the mental health of people with stress symptoms and be used as a reference material for making policy suggestions to establish an organized agro-healing system.