Effects of Clay and Drawing Art Program on Self-expression and Depression in Elderly Patients at a Long-term Care Hospital

Abstract

Art program has been found to enhance mood such as increasing motivation, self-expression and decreasing depression in older adults. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of clay art and drawing on depression and self-expression among elderly people at a long-term care center. Methods: The research was a pre-test and post-test non-equivalent design. Sixty older patients (clay art program=28. Drawing art program=32) over the age of 65 were recruited from 2 long-term care hospitals to participate in the 5 weeks program. Each group was scheduled with 10,120-minute evaluation sessions, twice per week. Test measures were completed before and after the 5 week intervention period for all participants. The data was collected from April 27 to May 29, 2015. It was analyzed with SPSS 22.0 using chi-square, t-test and paired t-test. Results: There were no significant difference in the levels of depression (t=0.21, p=.830) and total score of self-expression (t=-0.10, p=.919) between the two groups. However, the pre-post scores of self-expression in the clay art program (t=0.22, p=.826) were improved compared to the drawing art program (t=0.80, p=.430). Conclusion: Further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of clay art program for extended senior care applications.