Arts-Based, Digital and Related Lifestyle Interventions to Improve Health and Wellbeing for Adults with Learning...

Adults with learning disabilities experience persistent health inequalities, including poorer physical and mental health, lower levels of physical activity, higher rates of obesity and reduced access to appropriately adapted health promotion interventions. Arts-based and digital approaches are increasingly explored to support wellbeing and health-related behaviour change; however, the extent and characteristics of the existing evidence have not yet been clearly mapped or synthesised. This scoping review aimed to map the range, characteristics, accessibility features and reported outcomes of arts-based, digital and related lifestyle interventions for adults with learning disabilities, with particular attention to how intervention design may support engagement, participation and health improvement.

A scoping review was undertaken in accordance with Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and reported using PRISMA-ScR guidance. Nine databases were searched from inception to 27 July 2025: AMED, ASSIA, CINAHL, EMBASE, Emcare, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed and Web of Science. Backward citation searching of included studies was also undertaken. Eligible studies included adults aged 18 years and over with learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities or developmental disabilities and examined arts-based therapies, arts-in-health activities, digital interventions or accessible lifestyle interventions targeting health, wellbeing or health-related behaviour. Data were charted using a structured form informed by the TIDieR framework. Findings were synthesised descriptively and through narrative and thematic analysis.

Sixty studies met the inclusion criteria. Five broad categories of intervention were identified: arts-based therapies; arts-based activities delivered in health or community contexts; digital interventions; physical or behavioural programmes without arts or digital components; and hybrid interventions combining arts-based and digital elements. Arts-based therapies most commonly targeted emotional wellbeing, expression, confidence and social connection, whereas digital interventions more frequently focused on physical activity, diet, weight management and self-management. Across intervention types, engagement was consistently influenced by accessibility adaptations, including simplified communication, visual supports, repetition, flexible pacing, facilitator support and carer involvement. Reported outcomes were generally positive, particularly in relation to wellbeing, participation and health-related behaviours. However, confidence in these findings is limited by small sample sizes, short follow-up periods, heterogeneous outcome measures and variable reporting quality.

The review suggests that arts-based and digital interventions offer complementary but rarely integrated approaches to improving health and wellbeing in adults with learning disabilities. Arts-based interventions tend to foreground relational, expressive and identity-affirming processes, whereas digital interventions more commonly mobilise structured behaviour change techniques. Future work should move beyond parallel development of these traditions and test more integrated, coproduced and accessibility-led intervention models. Stronger evaluative designs, clearer reporting and more explicit attention to implementation context will be essential to build a more actionable evidence base.