Virtual Guided Tour of the MMFA for Prevention of Social Isolation

A 3-month Cycle of Weekly Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Guided Tours Oto Promote Social Inclusion, Well-being, Quality of Life and Health in Older Community Members Experiencing Social Isolation

It has previously been reported that participatory art-based activities may improve social inclusion, well-being, quality of life and health condition. Findings from the investigator's first study seem to confirm that the MMFA participatory art-based activity may improve well-being, quality of life and health condition in older community dwellers. However, these studies were performed before the COVID-19 crisis and were guided tours performed at the MMFA. A pilot study on virtual guided tour has been performed during COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2021). There is a need to confirm benefits with a randomized clinical trial.

The hypothesize for this study is that a 3-month cycle of virtual weekly MMFA tours may induce changes in social isolation, well-being, quality of life and health condition (i.e., reduction of frailty) in older community dwellers. Because there is a positive correlation between severity of frailty and the occurrence of undesirable events like Emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations, the investigator hypothesizes that virtual guided tours may decrease the frequency of ED visits and hospitalizations.

Inclusion Criteria:

• age 65 and over;
• having a low level of social inclusion defined with the 11-item Duke Social Support Index (DSSI) score ≤ 26/3323;
• living in Quebec, at home in an urban area;
• reading, understanding and writing the languages of the recruitment centre (i.e., French or English or Chinese mandarin) because all the questionnaires are available in French, in English and in Chinese mandarin, and because the guides of the museum performing the virtual guided tours speak French and/or English, with a translator in Chinese mandarin.
• Having an Internet access and an electronic device (smartphone, laptop, computer and/or tablet with a functional cam) at the participant's place of living as the repetitive assessments for this study will be performed on the web platform of the CRIUGM, and the guided tours will be virtual.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Cannot participate to a clinical trial at the same time, to avoid interferences with the outcomes of the studied intervention in this protocol.
• Having participated to a participatory art-based activity of the MMFA during the 3 month-period before the recruitment. A participation to any other museum activities may be assimilate to an intervention. As it could interfere with our outcomes, participants are not allowed to participate to any other museum activity, in any museum, during their 3-month participation. We previously showed that museum activities may change the outcomes studied in this study.