Effects of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Visits and Older Community Dwellers With a Precarious State

Effects of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Visits and Older Community Dwellers With a Precarious State: An Experimental Study

This study evaluates the effects of MMFA visits on psychological, health, social conditions and personal interactions in older community dwellers with a precarious state and to determine whether these effects may change precarity.

Precarity is a vulnerable state exposing individuals to adverse health, psychological social events. Older adults are exposed to precarity, especially those who were the old generation of immigrants in Canada. Art-based activities have also been proposed to community dwellers and have shown positive effects on health outcomes and are determinants for well-being with aging. The effects of participatory art-based activities on precarity in older adults have never been examined. Recently, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) developed a new participatory art-based activity which is a 3 month-period of weekly museum visits for precarious populations.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being 65 years and over;
• Precarious condition defined with a score ≥30 (/100)
• Having an Internet access with an electronic device (i.e.; laptop, computer, smartphone, tablet) as the repetitive assessments for this study will be performed on the web platform of the Centre of Excellence on Longevity of McGill University;
• Understanding and writing the different languages of the recruitment centre (i.e., French, English, Chinese.);
• Severe frail condition determined with the Centre of Excellence self-administered questionnaire (CESAM)
• Living in Montreal

Exclusion Criteria:

• A concomitant participation to another clinical trial;
• Participation in another art-based activity;
• Palliative care;
• Living in residence;
• Having a moderate to severe mobility impairment (i.e. using a walker, a wheelchair or being unable to walk alone 10m).