Effectiveness of art therapy with pediatric populations affected by medical health conditions: a systematic review

AbstractBackgroundVisual art therapy has been widely used with children with medical health conditions within various settings. However, less is known about its effectiveness. The scope of this systematic review is to shed light on what benefit art therapy may have for ill health adjustment in youth populations.MethodsElectronic databases (Psychinfo, Medline, CINAHL, ERIC, Scopus, Embase and Child and Adolescent Studies) were searched (1806–2017). Systematic methods for study selection and data extraction were used.ResultsTwelve studies (N = 404 participants, 318 in the control group; aged between 2 and 19 years old, with various medical conditions) were included. Ten studies reported significant improvements concerning at least one outcome with an overall inconclusive trend toward effectiveness.ConclusionsVisual art therapy interventions were found weak in evidence quality. However, future evidence-based research designs could show the effectiveness of these interventions in health care settings.