Art museum-based intervention to promote emotional well-being and improve quality of life in people with dementia, the ARTEMIS project

Engelsk

side 729-743, figurer

Osm7.07Sch

7.07

Abstract ARTEMIS (ART Encounters: Museum Intervention Study) is an art-based intervention designed especially for people with dementia and their care partners that involves a combination of museum visits and artistic activity. This paper reports the results of a randomized wait-list controlled study on the influence of the ARTEMIS intervention on the emotional state, well-being, and quality of life of dementia patients. People with mild-to-moderate dementia (n ¼ 44) and their care partners (n ¼ 44) visited the Frankfurt St€adel Museum once a week on six pre-arranged occasions. The intervention consisted of six different guided art tours (60 minutes), followed by art-making in the studio (60 minutes). Independent museum visits served as a control condition. A mixed-methods design was used to assess several outcomes including cognitive status, emotional well-being, self-rated aspects of quality of life, and subjective evaluations by informal caregivers. In a pre-post-assessment, we found significant improvements in participants’ self-rated quality of life (t ¼ 3.15, p <.05). In a situational assessment of emotional well-being immediately before and after each of the museum sessions, we were able to demonstrate statistically significant positive changes with medium effect sizes (dcorr ¼.74–.77). Furthermore, the total Neuropsychiatric Inventory score as well as the affective (depressed mood and anxiety) and apathy subscales were significantly lower after the ARTEMIS intervention (tNPI total ¼ 2.43; tNPI affective ¼ 2.24; tNPI apathy ¼ 2.52; p <.05). The results show that art museum-based art interventions are able to improve the subjective well-being, mood, and quality of life in people with dementia. This promising psychosocial approach deserves further attention in future studies and consideration in community-based dementia care programs.

Dementia Vol.17(6) 728-743 (2018)

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