University of New Brunswick, Saint John, Canada.
Aging Ment Health. 2024 Jan-Feb;28(2):307-318. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2023.2246416. Epub 2023 Aug 21.
Through a process of 'creative ageing', there is increased interest in how active participation in the arts can help promote health and well-being among seniors. However, few studies have quantitatively examined the benefits of a foray into artistic expression, and even fewer employ rigorous identification strategies. Addressing this knowledge gap, we use a series of quantitative techniques (ordinary least squares and quantile regression) to analyze the impact of an arts-based intervention targeting the elderly.
Recruited from Saint John, New Brunswick (a city of about 125,000 people in Eastern Canada), 130 seniors were randomly assigned to the programme, with the remaining 122 serving as the control. This intervention consisted of weekly 2-h art sessions (i.e. drawing, painting, collage, clay-work, performance, sculpting, and mixed media), taking place from January 2020 until April 2021.
Relative to the control group, the intervention tended to reduce participant loneliness and depression, and improve their mental health. Outcomes were more evident toward the latter part of the programme, were increasing in attendance, and most efficacious among those with initially low levels of well-being.
These findings imply that creative ageing promotes healthy ageing, which is especially noteworthy given COVID-19 likely attenuated our results.
通过“创造性老龄化”过程，人们越来越关注积极参与艺术活动如何帮助老年人促进健康和幸福。然而，很少有研究定量研究艺术表达的益处，更少的研究采用严格的识别策略。为了弥补这一知识空白，我们使用一系列定量技术（普通最小二乘法和分位数回归）来分析针对老年人的艺术干预的影响。
130 名老年人从加拿大东部新不伦瑞克省的圣约翰（一个约有 12.5 万人的城市）招募，他们被随机分配到该项目中，其余 122 人作为对照组。该干预措施包括每周 2 小时的艺术课程（即绘画、绘画、拼贴画、陶艺、表演、雕塑和混合媒体），从 2020 年 1 月持续到 2021 年 4 月。
与对照组相比，干预组参与者的孤独感和抑郁感有所减轻，心理健康状况有所改善。这些结果在项目后期更为明显，与出勤率增加有关，对最初幸福感较低的人效果最为显著。
这些发现意味着创造性老龄化促进健康老龄化，这尤其值得注意，因为 COVID-19 可能削弱了我们的研究结果。
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