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Amplifying Health Through Community Gardens: A Framework for Advancing Multicomponent, Behaviorally Based Neighborhood Interventions

  • Food, Health, and the Environment (KE Nachman, Section Editor)
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Abstract

The article presents a framework for understanding the relationship between community garden participation, and the myriad ways gardens and participation lead to emotional, social, and health impacts. Existing empirical research relating community gardens to health behaviors, such as physical activity and diet, and longer-term chronic disease-related outcomes is summarized. The research areas discussed include the effects of community garden participation on individual, social, emotional, and environmental processes; health behaviors including diet and physical activity; and health outcomes such as self-rated health, obesity, and mental health. Other mechanisms through which community gardens may affect population health are described. Applying a multitheoretical lens to explore associations between community garden participation and health enables us to delineate key aspects of gardening that elicit positive health behaviors and multifactorial health assets that could be applied to designing other types of health interventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, G. Malcolm Trout Building, Room 208C, 469 Wilson Road, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Katherine Alaimo & Alyssa W. Beavers

  2. 936 Huntington Road, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Caroline Crawford

  3. Department of Health Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, DPL 405, Anchorage, AK, 99508-4614, USA

    Elizabeth Hodges Snyder

  4. University of Colorado Boulder, 4001 Discovery Drive, Boulder, CO, 80303, USA

    Jill S. Litt

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  1. Katherine Alaimo
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  2. Alyssa W. Beavers
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Correspondence to Jill S. Litt.

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Katherine Alaimo, Alyssa W. Beavers, Caroline Crawford, Elizabeth Hodges Snyder, and Jill S. Litt declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Alaimo, K., Beavers, A.W., Crawford, C. et al. Amplifying Health Through Community Gardens: A Framework for Advancing Multicomponent, Behaviorally Based Neighborhood Interventions. Curr Envir Health Rpt 3, 302–312 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-016-0105-0

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