Ecominds-effects-on-mental-wellbeing-evaluation-report

38 <strong>Ecominds</strong> <strong>effects</strong> on mental wellbeingpart in the <strong>Ecominds</strong> scheme regardless of whetherthe projects were using horticulture, farming, greenexercise, nature art or conservation activities; orwhether or not they included formal therapy.4.2 About the ‘All projects’ evaluationThe ‘All projects’ <strong>Ecominds</strong> evaluation was open toall projects except the nine involved in the ‘in-depth’evaluation, projects which were participating in theirown external evaluations and projects where it wasnot considered ethically appropriate (for examplewhere participants were deemed by project staff to beparticularly vulnerable, too young or too traumatisedand therefore not able to complete questionnaires).The ‘All projects’ <strong>Ecominds</strong> evaluation comprises twoseparate analyses. Firstly, for those people whocompleted both a start of programme (or Baseline/ Time point 1) questionnaire and then anotherquestionnaire at the end of the programme (or atEndpoint / Time point 2) a direct comparison ofparameters and any changes that have occurred overtime can be made on an individual basis. We havecalled this analysis a ‘within group’ study.Secondly, some participants either completed onequestionnaire at the start of their time at the projector one questionnaire at the end of the projectenabling a comparison of the outcome measuresbetween two different groups of participants (thosewho have just started at a project and those whohave just finished) and any resulting differences to bereported. We have called this part of the analysis a‘between groups’ study.Both of these analyses are reported together in thisresults section under the various themes highlightedbelow, as the findings were very similar. The datafor the ‘within group’ or matched questionnaire studywere normally distributed and so enabled parametricstatistical tests to be carried out on the data;however the data for the ‘between groups’ studywere not normally distributed 146 and so alternativenon-parametric statistics were used. As parametricstatistics are generally considered more robust,these have been reported first in more detail, withadditional data from the non-parametric statisticsreported afterwards.Results from the ‘All projects’ evaluation have beenorganised under the following themes:• About the participants• About the projects• Mental wellbeing• Social inclusion• Connection to nature• Healthy lifestyles4.3 About the participantsA total of 515 participants completed questionnairesfor the ‘All projects’ evaluation, made up of 180 inthe ‘within group’ study and 335 participants inthe ‘between groups’ study (where 44 per cent ofparticipants completed questionnaires at the startand 56 per cent at the end of the programme).There were more male participants (66%) that tookpart in the evaluation than either female (34%) ortransgender (