The Use of Arts-Based Methods to Enhance Patient Engagement in Health Research

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Patient and Public Involvement

Background:

• Patient and care partner engagement in research (PER) is crucial for advancing healthcare knowledge.
• Arts-based methods (ABM) offer unique ways to share complex, aesthetic knowledge beyond verbal communication.
• The synergy between PER and ABM, both participatory and collaborative, is underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and summarize the applications of arts-based methods (ABM) in patient and care partner engagement in research (PER).
• To explore the impacts of using ABM within PER initiatives.
• To understand how ABM can enhance the quality and inclusivity of PER.

Main Methods:

• A narrative review was conducted.
• Searches were performed across CINAHL, Scopus, and PubMed databases.
• Fifteen relevant articles were included in the synthesis.

Main Results:

• A diverse range of ABM were employed in PER studies.
• ABM were found to be decolonizing, empowering individuals with lived experience, and reducing tokenism.
• Participants shared aesthetic knowledge directly through art, fostering deeper emotional and relational understanding.

Conclusions:

• Researchers should leverage the participatory strengths of ABM to engage people with lived experience meaningfully.
• ABM can operationalize PER, facilitating the elicitation of aesthetic knowledge and promoting equitable power dynamics.
• Consideration of ABM is recommended for enhancing PER beyond traditional data collection.