Effects of Arts Engagement on Physical Performance, Cognition, Social Isolation, and Self-Perception in Older Adults (SHARe)

George Mason University (GMU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Physical Activity; Cognitive Impairment; Quality of Life; Mental Status Change; Self-Perception; Social Isolation

Treatments: Other: Active Social Conversation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT04281654

1428455-1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this community-engaged project is to examine how taking part in different arts (dance & music), compared to control (no arts) affects older adults' Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL using the Short Form-20(SF) form), physical performance (Short Physical Performance Battery-SPPB), cognition (using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-MoCA), social engagement (National Social Life, Health, & Aging Project-NSHAP survey), and perceptions of self (focus interviews).

Full description

In this Randomized-Controlled-Trial, 60 adults (20/condition) will take part in 20, 45-minute sessions (ballroom dance, ukulele/guitar playing, or control- i.e. social conversation), 2 times/week for 10 weeks.

While the investigators know that arts participation improves function in older adults, exact effects of different arts programs on health outcomes remains unclear.

The investigators plan to fill this gap by studying how different arts participation affect health outcomes.

The overall aim is to study how arts engagement helps older adults remain active and influences physical, psychological, and emotional functioning.

Enrollment: 64 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65 to 100 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Be healthy,
• > 65 years of age and able to take part in learning music, or ballroom dance.

Exclusion criteria

• Presence of a co-morbid mental health diagnosis or other physical or behavioral challenges that the study staff assess as rendering the participant unable or unsafe to participate in the study.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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64 participants in 3 patient groups

Ballroom Dance

Experimental group

Description:

The Dance group participants will take part in ballroom dance lessons twice/week for 45-minutes/session for 10 weeks

Treatment:

Other: Active Social Conversation

Ukulele

Experimental group

Description:

The Music group participants will take part in ukulele lessons twice/week for 45-minutes/session for 10 weeks

Treatment:

Other: Active Social Conversation

Control

Active Comparator group

Description:

The Control group participants will meet 2 times per week for 45-minutes/session for 10 weeks to participate in a social conversational group for 10 weeks

Treatment:

Other: Active Social Conversation