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Intervention and application of clown care in nursing homes: a scoping review

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Abstract

Background

The purpose of this scoping review was to organize and describe the literature on the application of clown care to the elderly population in nursing homes, including intervention time, intervention methods and intervention effects, so as to provide reference ideas for other scholars to explore clown care programs suitable for the elderly population in nursing homes.

Methods

Employing Arksey and O’Malley’s methodology, we searched for PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane, CNKI, WanFang, VIP, and CBM systematically and thoroughly, and the search period was from the establishment of each database to December 12, 2022. Two researchers with evidence-based learning experience independently conducted literature retrieval, information extraction, and cross-checking in strict accordance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The review process is reported according to PRISMA.

Results

148 literature were initially obtained after searching, of which 18 were finally included. Among them, 17 were in English and 1 was in Chinese. There are 16 quantitative studies and 2 qualitative studies published from 2010 to 2022. It is found that the current clown care intervention program has not established a unified intervention standard and effective evaluation program.

Conclusions

The results of this scoping review conclude that clown care played a significant role in the nursing home. At first, it can reduce negative emotions, cognitive impairments and physical pain among older adults. In addition, it can improve their quality of life, life satisfaction, etc. It is suggested to learn from the advanced experience of clown care in foreign countries and carry out more clown care among the elderly population in nursing homes in China.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, Anqing Medical College, Anqing, 246052, Anhui, China

    Juan Xu, Fei Yang & Qing Yang

  2. School of Nursing, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230012, Anhui, China

    Juan Xu, Ying Zhang, Jing Zheng, Jing Zhang & Chao Wang

  3. The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, China

    Yu-Xiang Guan

  4. The Chinese Medicine Hospital of Qianshan, Qianshan, 246399, Anhui, China

    Wen-Tao Liu

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Contributions

JX and Y-XG: proposed this study; JX, YZ, and JZ: collected and analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript; JZ, CW, W-TL and FY: offered help; QY: helped revise the manuscript. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and attest that it has not been previously published.

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Correspondence to Yu-Xiang Guan.

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Xu, J., Guan, YX., Liu, WT. et al. Intervention and application of clown care in nursing homes: a scoping review. Aging Clin Exp Res 35, 937–952 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-023-02376-0

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