Systematic Development of an Art Making Intervention as a Potential Pain Management Strategy for Older Adults

To describe a systematic process for developing an art making intervention, guided by a previously developed theoretical framework outlining its proposed mechanism of action as a potential pain management strategy for older adults.

A multi-method approach that combined a descriptive qualitative study and survey methodology was used. Initially, a qualitative study with 11 older adults experiencing various chronic pain conditions provided insights into their perspectives on the preliminary intervention. Participants described the intervention, which included drawing, painting, and craft activities, as generally appropriate but in need of revisions to instructional details and difficulty levels. Based on this feedback, we created six independent intervention books featuring activities at three levels of difficulty. A quantitative survey was conducted with five content experts and three experiential experts to collect formative evaluations of the revised intervention.

The eight experts rated the revised intervention highly overall but recommended improving the organization of the written and visual instructions and ensuring the use of age-appropriate language. The final intervention offers 20 art making activities delivered in a home-based, individual format using an art making activity book and YouTube channel.

By using a multi-method design, we tailored the intervention to the unique needs of older adults while grounding it in our theoretical framework describing its proposed mechanism of action for chronic pain management. Future studies are needed to rigorously test our hypotheses and evaluate the intervention's efficacy in reducing pain intensity among older adults.