Effects of art therapy interventions on satisfaction with life: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Art therapies have emerged as a cost-effective global resource for promoting wellbeing, and quality of life and for reducing mental health problems through mind-body connection and creative expression. The aim was to systematically review the current evidence about the benefits of dance and theater-based interventions on the life satisfaction of participants. Furthermore, this study is aimed to synthesize and meta-analyze the results of the previously published randomized controlled trials. Thus, to identify the articles, a systematic search was conducted in PubMed (Medline) and Web of Science. The inclusion criteria included: being a randomized controlled trial, evaluating the effects of dance or drama interventions and providing pre-post data showing the effects on life satisfaction. A total of 12 articles were included in the Systematic Review, with 8 of them being included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis results showed that dance and drama interventions are effective (p = 0.01) in increasing the satisfaction with life of participants with different ages and conditions. In conclusion, dance and theater-based interventions are two forms of art therapies that may be useful to enhance the life satisfaction of people. Furthermore, further studies are needed to make stronger evidence-based recommendations or comparisons to other types of physical activity.