THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN INDOOR PLANTS, STRESS, PRODUCTIVITY AND SICK LEAVE IN OFFICE WORKERS

The objective of the present study was to situate the potential benefits of indoor plants in a workplace context. With cross-sectional survey data from 385 Norwegian office employees, we used hierarchical regression analyses to estimate the associations between plants and perceived stress, sick leave and productivity. In the regression models we statistically controlled for gender, age, and physical and psychosocial work¬place factors. After controlling for these variables, the number of indoor plants proximal to the workers had small but statistically reliable associations with sick leave and productivity. Although small, such associations can have substantial practical significance given aggregation over the large number of office workers over time.