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Active, not recruiting

NCT Number: NCT06645652

Visual Arts Interventions With Older Adults

The present study investigates the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of a novel visual arts-based intervention in an older adult population. In a randomized controlled design, two arts-based interventions will be evaluated with a group of 40 participants.

Active, not recruiting

This study is active but is not currently recruiting participants.

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Key information

Conditions

Feasibility Study

Age range

55 year–85 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, United States

About this study

A two-arm randomized controlled study will be conducted to obtain within-group ratings of feasibility and acceptability, as well as between-group differences in drawing skills after training. In the drawing intervention, participants will learn and train drawing skills through exercises that target attention, perception, and visuospatial reasoning. In the active control condition, participants will navigate virtual art galleries. Both interventions will be completed remotely and at home. Participants will complete in-lab assessment sessions before and after the training.

Each intervention consists of 6 weeks of training for up to 2 hours a week, including up to 1 hour of a self-guided lesson and prompted daily drawing practice adding up to 1 hour in the drawing intervention and 2 1-hour sessions of virtual gallery exploring per week in the arts appreciation intervention. The pre-test is administered within one week of the start of training and the post-test is administered within one week of training completion.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • 55-85 years of age
  • Able to understand and speak English and follow study procedures
  • Does not have a psychological or neurological condition that would prevent from being able to give consent to participate

Exclusion criteria

  • Formal diagnosis of dementia or other neurological disease, including Mild Cognitive Impairment
  • Abnormal visual acuity prohibitive of tablet-based training
  • Physical handicap (motor or perceptual) that would impede training procedures
  • Medical illness requiring treatment and/or significant absences during the study timeline

Treatment and study plan

Training in observational drawing

Behavioral
  • Learning about and practicing drawing from observation with training adding up to 2 hours a week
  • Documenting progress and reflection writing

Arts engagement through digital galleries

Behavioral
  • 6 weeks of online gallery browsing based on different topics
  • 2 hours of weekly activities consist of reading and navigating technology
  • Reflection writing

Primary outcomes

  1. Acceptability - Age appropriateness

    Time frame: Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)

    Perceived age-appropriateness of the course content, likert scale 0-5

  2. Acceptability - engagement

    Time frame: Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)

    Level of engagement with the course materials, likert scale 0-5

  3. Acceptability - Welcoming

    Time frame: Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)

    How welcoming participants perceived the activities, likert scale from 0-5

  4. Feasibility - completion rate

    Time frame: At the post-test 6-8 weeks later

    % of participants who completed both testing sessions

  5. Feasibility - adherence

    Time frame: At the post-test 6-8 weeks later or when a participant decided to drop out

    Number of lessons that participants completed, from 0-6

  6. Feasibility - Frequency

    Time frame: Throughout training (weeks 1-6 of training)

    Total number of times participants logged their progress

  7. Feasibility - Attrition

    Time frame: At the post-test 6-8 weeks later or when a participant decided to drop out

    List of common reasons for drop-out and the number of times a reason was mentioned

  8. Change in Drawing skills

    Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

    Participants will have 7 minutes to draw a still life from observation. Accuracy is scored using a rubric assessing accuracy on global and local features.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in Perception - contour integration

    Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

    Participants tap on circles of aligned Gabors embedded in a scene of randomly oriented Gabors. A circle will be present for 3 seconds and switch to the next trial if it is not seen. Orientation jitter threshold will be measured.

  2. Change in Perception - visual disembedding

    Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

    articipants search for a target shape in 3 complex gestalts of overlapping shapes. Participants select the complex shape containing the target. Number of correctly answered trials accuracy are measured.

  3. Change in Visuospatial Reasoning - construction and memory

    Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

    3D Mental Rotation (3 min) will test mental transformation. Participants will be briefly shown two figures and asked to determine whether the figures are the same or mirror reversed. Number of correctly answered trials accuracy are measured.

  4. Change in Visuospatial Reasoning - mental transformation

    Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

    3D Mental Rotation (3 min) will test mental transformation. Participants will be briefly shown two figures and asked to determine whether the figures are the same or mirror reversed. Number of correctly answered trials accuracy are measured.

  5. Change in Attention

    Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

    A cancellation task will measure selective attention. Participants correctly mark as many d's with two marks as they can in a set amount of time. A score of concentration performance is extracted by subtracting the sum of false alarms from the sum of hits.

  6. Change in Mindfulness

    Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

    Participants complete a version Solloway Mindfulness Survey adapted to drawing. The questionnaire includes 30 questions on a 7-point scale on the degree to which engaging in drawing is related to different aspects of mindful attention.

  7. Change in Mental Wellbeing

    Time frame: Pre-test (baseline) and post-test 6-8 weeks later

    Mental Wellbeing is assessed by the WEMWBS, which includes 14 questions on a 5 point scale about positive mental wellbeing.

Other outcomes

  1. Daily progress log - flow

    Time frame: After every training session (weeks 1-6 of training, up to 7 times a week)

    Participants select how much flow they felt during a given session using a set of 18 questions and a scale from 1-5

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Northeastern University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Feasibility and Preliminary Effects of a Drawing-based Intervention on Cognition and Wellbeing of Community-Dwelling Adults at Risk for ADRD

Important dates

Study start
2025
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Oct 17, 2024
Registry last updated
Aug 7, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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