Understanding the impacts of care farms on health and well-being of disadvantaged populations: a protocol of the Evaluating Community Orders (ECO) pilot study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Care farms, where all or part of the farm is used for therapeutic purposes, show much potential for improving the health and well-being of a range of disadvantaged groups. Studies to date have been qualitative or observational, with limited empirical evidence of the effectiveness of care farms in improving health and well-being. Understanding the underlying mechanisms that lead to improvements for different disadvantaged groups is a further gap in the evidence. Participants in this study are offenders serving community orders. Their low socioeconomic status and poor health outcomes relative to the general population exemplifies disadvantage.

Methods and analysis

This paper describes the protocol of a study to understand the impacts of care farms and to pilot the

SUBMITTER: Elsey H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4216857 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature