Clinical trial NCT04298047: A 3-month Cycle of Weekly Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Tours
Official title: A 3-month Cycle of Weekly Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Tours to Promote Social Inclusion, Well-being, Quality of Life and Health in Older Community Members Experiencing Social Isolation
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Social Interaction
Quality of Life
Health
Keywords: Community-dwellers
older adults
museum
art
Lead sponsor: Jewish General Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2020-03-06
Enrollment: 128
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 65
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: The design is a unicentre (Jewish General Hospital; Montreal, Quebec, Canada), clinical, randomized, controlled, single blinded (i.e.; investigators), superiority trial, with two parallel arms (Intervention and Control groups), comparative (comparison between Intervention and Control groups) and analyzed with the intention-to-treat.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Social isolation in older community-members living in urban areas and its possible reduction through a 3-month cycle of weekly museum tours.

Detailed description: Social isolation is a major problem for the Canadian society because of its: (1) high prevalence in the older population (30% in individuals aged 65 and over, which represents 1.5 million individuals), (2) association with a wide range of mental and physical health problems and (3) increased use of health and social services. Museum art-based activities have demonstrated benefits on an individual's sense of social inclusion, their well-being, their quality of life and physical frailty. Few studies have examined the effects of the participation in museum art-based activities in older community members experiencing social isolation. In 2019, the team conducted an experimental pilot study comprised of pre-post intervention, single arm, prospective and a longitudinal follow-up. This experiment indicated that a 3-month cycle of weekly visits to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in the form of a guided tour may improve the social inclusion of socially isolated older adults. We hypothesize that it is possible to reproduce these previous positive results using a mixed methods approach that combines: (1) a qualitative phase comprised of observation of the guided tours; semi-structured interviews, focus groups and an analysis of relevant organizational documents; (2) a quantitative phase based on a randomized clinical trial (RCT). Over a two-year period, we will examine whether and how a 3-month cycle of weekly MMFA tours may (1) improve social inclusion, well-being and quality of life, and (2) reduce frailty in older community members, living in Montreal, who are experiencing social isolation. The study includes the participation of community workers who work with socially isolated older Montrealers, members of this community, as well as museum works and administrators. Our research will not only include information on how the museum experience has affected older adults. It will incorporate feedback from all of these participants leading to an evaluation of the program offered by the museum to better serve the future needs and desires of this population. It will also benefit the participating organizations.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

1. Being 65 years and over
2. Having an Internet access with an electronic device (i.e.; laptop, computer, smartphone, tablet) at the participant's place of living as the repetitive assessments for this study will be performed on the web platform of the Centre of Excellence on Longevity of McGill University
3. Understanding and writing the language of the recruitment centre (i.e., French or English)
4. Life expectancy estimated over 3 months as the duration of the follow-up is 3 months

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Concomitant participation to another clinical trial,
2. Having participated to a participatory art-based activity of the MMFA,
3. Not speaking the language of the study.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Social isolation
timeFrame: 3 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Frailty
timeFrame: 3 months
measure: Well-being
timeFrame: 3 months
measure: Quality of life using the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D)
timeFrame: 3 months
measure: Participants' socio-demographic characteristics
timeFrame: 3 months
measure: Interpersonal interactions
timeFrame: 3 months
measure: Compliance assessed counting the number of workshops completed during the 3-month period of intervention.
timeFrame: 3 month
measure: Satisfaction concerning the project assessed by self-questionnaire
timeFrame: 1 day
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Montréal
country: Canada
facility: Jewish General Hospital
state: Quebec
Study officials:
affiliation: McGill University
name: Olivier Beauchet, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: