Museum Prescription

This research project, conducted by the Arts and Health research Axis and the AgeTeQ laboratory, aims to evaluate the impact of visits to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), prescribed by a physician, on the mental health, quality of life, and well-being of patients living in Quebec.

This is an experimental, prospective, open-label, non-randomized before-and-after study involving a single group of participants serving as their own control group.

The intervention consisted of a self-guided visit to the MMFA. Seventeen recruiting physicians participated in the study. They were provided with prescription booklets enabling them to prescribe a museum visit during a consultation to patients for whom this type of intervention was deemed appropriate. A total of 208 prescriptions were distributed.

Patients were given one month to complete their museum visit. Research participants were invited to complete two self-administered online questionnaires: the first within two days prior to the visit, and the second within three days following the visit. The questionnaires included the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) instrument to measure quality of life, as well as the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Health Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) to assess mental well-being.

In total, 86 individuals completed their museum visit and filled out all questionnaires before and after the intervention.

The primary objective of the study was to examine the effects of a physician-prescribed visit to the MMFA on mental health—understood here in terms of well-being and quality of life—among patients living in Quebec.

The results show that mean well-being and quality-of-life scores, assessed respectively using the WEMWBS and the EQ-5D visual analogue scale (0 to 100), were significantly higher after the museum visit than before (p < 0.01). These findings indicate that a physician-prescribed visit to the MMFA has a beneficial effect on patients’ quality of life and mental health.

In conclusion, although the positive effects of the arts on mental health are compelling, future research will need to examine the conditions surrounding the allocation, access, and implementation of museum prescriptions in order to maximize their benefits for the greatest number of people. Qualitative studies, including interviews with various stakeholders, will help to better understand the limitations and barriers encountered, as well as the factors likely to improve the deployment and uptake of museum prescriptions.