Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of music-centered integrative art therapy on loneliness, depression, life satisfaction, cortisol and NK-cell of the elderly living in a long-term care facility.
Methods : The subje...
Objectives : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of music-centered integrative art therapy on loneliness, depression, life satisfaction, cortisol and NK-cell of the elderly living in a long-term care facility.
Methods : The subjects of this study were 32 elders who were chosen out of the 150 elders that lived in a municipal elderly care facility of S city, Kyungki province. They were equally and randomly divided, and allocated to the experimental group and the control group. Final subjects of this study were 15 elders in the experimental group and 16 elders in control group, since one person was dropped during the study.
The experimental group was subjected to music-centered integrative arts therapy programs of 60 minutes, twice a week and up to 15 sessions total. The control group was not.
To examine the effects of the music-centered integrative arts therapy, the results of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale(UCLA-R), the Korean version of the short form of Geriatric Depression Scale(SGDS-K), the Elderly Life Satisfaction Scale and blood tests, cortisol and NK-cell, were compared for before and after the program.
To explore the homogeneity of the pre-scores of experimental and control group, independent samples t-test was conducted. To figure out the effect of music-centered integrative arts therapy, mixed ANOVA using 2X2 repeated measurement design were used. Thus differences between the groups, between the times, and interaction between the groups and the times were evaluated.
Results : The results of this study are as followings.
First, there was no significant statistic difference between the experimental and the control group in the examination of homogeneity.
Second, the music-centered integrative arts therapy significantly reduced the experimental group's loneliness.
Third, the music-centered integrative arts therapy significantly reduced the experimental group's depression.
Fourth, the music-centered integrative arts therapy significantly increased the experimental group's life satisfaction. In sub-scale, positive emotions were greatly increased, negative emotions were decreased and positive experiences were increased while there was no significance in negative experiences.
Fifth, the music-centered integrative arts therapy had no significant effect on cortisol.
Sixth, the music-centered integrative arts therapy significant increased the experimental group's NK-cell.
Conclusion : The music-centered integrative arts therapy had significant effect on reducing loneliness and depression, increasing satisfaction, and increasing NK-cell of the elderly living in a long-term care facility. In particular, the reduction of loneliness and the improvement of life satisfaction was verified. Consequently, it will be possible to apply the music-centered integrative arts therapy program usefully as psycho-social intervention program for the elderly living in long-term care facilities.
Key words : Elderly, Long-term care facility, Integrative art therapy, Geriatric loneliness, Depression, Life satisfaction, Cortisol, NK-cell