HEALTH EVIDENCE NETWORK SYNTHESIS REPORT
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE ON THE ROLE OF THE ARTS IN IMPROVING HEALTH AND WELL-BEING? A SCOPING REVIEW
Finally, while this review has highlighted the opportunities for the arts in health and the specific areas where they appear to offer tangible benefit, there are many health conditions and aspects of care where the arts do not play a clinically meaningful role. Further, although not the focus of this review, there is also evidence of the arts leading to negative health effects. For example, stigma surrounding epilepsy has been perpetuated by certain popular songs (955), daily loud music exposure is linked to hearing loss (956), and media portrayals of medicine can cultivate greater health-related fear and unrealistic patient expectations (957,958). Consequently, it should not be assumed that the arts are a panacea, and careful consideration of the literature and informed design of programmes are important.
3.2 Summary of findings This report has mapped the evidence on the potential value of the arts in the promotion of good health, the amelioration or prevention of a range of mental and physical health conditions, and the treatment or management of acute and chronic conditions arising across the lifespan. Studies have covered a diverse range of arts activities and explored programmes delivered in a range of different locations from hospitals to primary care to the community to the home. A number of themes can be drawn from this research. First, there is a substantial body of evidence on the health benefits of the arts. Research designs included a spectrum from uncontrolled pilot studies to randomized controlled trials, from smallscale cross-sectional surveys to analyses of nationally representative longitudinal cohort studies, and from individual case studies to community-wide ethnographies. Research methods included psychological scales, biological markers, neuroimaging, behavioural observations, interviews and examinations of clinical records. Research studies also drew on theories from psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, philosophy, ecology, history, health economics, neuroscience, medicine, health geography, public health, anthropology, and sociology, among others. There was naturally variation in the quality of this evidence, and certain areas where findings remain to be confirmed or understood better. However, this review triangulated findings from different studies, each with a different set of strengths, which helped to address the weaknesses or intrinsic biases of individual studies. Overall, the findings from this review lend credibility to the assertion that the overall evidence base shows a robust impact of the arts on both mental and physical health. A second theme in the identified research was a focus on conditions for which no complete solutions are available. Here, the arts hold promise in tackling difficult or 52
