OSLO, Norway, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Norwegian and Swedish scientists say the addition of indoor plants can help improve a patient's well-being.
Researchers from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Sweden's Uppsala University conducted a two-year study on the effect of plants on patients in a difficult rehabilitation process.
The study, published in HortScience, finds the pulmonary rehabilitation patients reporting increased well-being when interior plants were introduced.
In fact, the pulmonary patients in the "plant intervention group" reported a larger increase in well-being during their rehabilitation program more often than lung patients from the "no plant" control group.
"The experiment showed that patients' overall physical and mental health improved during the program, but the presence of new plants did not increase the degree of improvement," study authors Ruth Kjaersti Raanaas, Grete Grindal Patil and Terry Hartig say in a statement.
The researchers looked at 436 patients at Norway's Roros Rehabilitation Center.
