Observational study reveals improved diet quality and lower body mass index among urban gardeners in Palau, suggesting public health benefits for obesity mitigation.
Despite growing evidence of urban gardening’s health benefits, studies in the Pacific Islands facing an obesity crisis remain extremely limited. In Palau, compared with non-gardeners, urban gardeners had a 0.86-point higher dietary diversity score ( p < 0.001 ), 2.92 kg/m 2 lower BMI ( p = 0.011 ), and 3.49-fold higher odds of reporting good health ( p < 0.001 ). These findings suggest the importance of integrating urban gardening into public health and spatial strategies.
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Iida et al. (2026) studied this question.
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