Sample Press Release: Flowers and Stress Relief Research Findings

Instructions: To send this press releases to your local media, cut and paste the desired text onto your shop’s letterhead. BE SURE to replace the RED TEXT with your information, and customize with your own quotes.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Health by Design: University Research Reveals
Surprising Solution for Relieving Stress

(City, State), (Date)– According to a survey by Wakefield Research shows that 68 percent of people feel stress on a weekly basis, and 32 percent are stressed every day. Women, in particular, are affected, as 1 in 4 report experiencing stress multiple times a day. From finances and health concerns, to lengthy to-do lists, there are numerous sources of strain in our lives, and today there is a surprisingly simple way to relieve it – flowers.

A study conducted at the University of North Florida’s Department of Public Health shows that living with flowers significantly alleviates daily stress. These findings follow decades of behavioral research studies conducted by researchers at universities including Harvard, Rutgers and Texas A&M that demonstrate flowers’ ability to make people happy, strengthen feelings of compassion, foster creativity and even provide a boost of energy.

The study, entitled, The Impact of Flowers on Perceived Stress Among Women, concludes that adding flowers to indoor environments results in a statistically significant and meaningful reduction in stress.

“There is a growing body of research that illustrates how environmental design positively impacts health. Now it is both intuitive and scientifically known that adding elements of nature, like flowers, to interiors promotes well-being,” said lead researcher Erin Largo-Wight, Ph.D., Associate Professor of University of North Florida’s Department of Public Health.

The specific results include:

• The average reduction in stress among the women who received and lived with flowers was -5.5 points on the Perceived Stress Questionnaire, a strong statistical significance in a decrease in stress.
• Flowers are a unique gift with the proven potential to reduce stress among women — likely because flowers provide the opportunity for nature contact, an established health-promoting environmental exposure.
• Participants who received flowers overwhelmingly reported that flowers improved their mood.

“Our findings are important from a public health perspective because adding flowers to reduce stress does not require tremendous effort to generate a meaningful effect,” said Largo-Wight. “When life seems to be in a constant state of frenzy, flowers can provide us with a much-needed moment of calm.”

(Name), owner of (Name of florist shop) sees these findings illustrated on a daily basis. (CUSTOM QUOTE GOES HERE … something to the effect of: “There is definitely a calming quality to flowers. We see it every time a customer walks in the shop. Even if they are hurried and frazzled, they seem more relaxed and less rushed when they leave,” said (last name). “The delivery of flowers from a loved one has an amazing effect on people’s well being,” added (last name). “Making someone’s day brighter is why we do what we do.”

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UNF Study Methodology:

A representative sample of 170 women between the ages of 18-65 were invited to participate in this experimental study. Participants were blinded to the purpose of the study and randomized into one of the following groups: flower home delivery (n=58), comparison gift home delivery (n=55, comparison group), and no delivery (n=57, control group).  The no-delivery group served as the control and did not receive a delivery. The comparison group and flower group received a delivery on day five or six of the study. The flower group received an arrangement of flowers and the comparison group received a luxury candle of the same approximate value. Both items were prepared and delivered by a local florist and gift shop. All groups completed online stress surveys for 12 consecutive days. The instrument of focus here was the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) that was administered at baseline (before delivery) and at post-test (after delivery).

Stress Survey:
Statistics on stress are from a survey of 1,004 nationally representative U.S. adults, ages 18+, by Wakefield Research in 2018.

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