Association between Community Garden Use and Health Perceptions:

Introduction:Community gardens are increasingly recognized as resources for health promotion and caregivingprevention.However, how users' experiences relate to their health perceptions remains unclear.This study aimed to examine the association between community garden participation and self-perceived health among users.Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to users of a community garden facility operated by Kagoshima City, locally known as the "Agricultural Tourism Park."Responses to an open-ended question were analyzed using KH Coder.Categories were derived through co-occurrence network analysis with a minimum word frequency of four, and a Jaccard coefficient threshold of 0.3.Differences in health perceptions and participant characteristics across categories were examined using the Kruskal-Wallis and Monte Carlo chi-squared tests (p < 0.05). Results:The 31 respondents had a mean age of 45.8 years, and 87.1% were female.Their responses produced three categories: (1) "Enjoying Together with Children" (n=11), (2) "Strengthening Family Bonds" (n=11), and (3) "Experiencing a Nature-Rich Environment" (n=9).No significant differences were observed between Category (1) and Category (2).Category (3) had the highest average age (50.6 years) and reported a significantly lower rate of perceived memory decline (22.2%, p = 0.037). Conclusion:Participation in community gardening with a preference for nature-rich environments was associated with a lower rate of self-perceived memory decline.Although the sample size was small, this finding suggested a possible link between garden-use experiences and health perceptions.Further research is needed to clarify how different patterns of garden use influence cognitive and behavioral health.