Towards recommendations for arts and health evaluation: a two-part review of Quality of Life scales used in mental health and arts research

There is increasing integration of the arts in public health, particularly in relation to Quality of Life (QoL). In health research and practice, QoL provides a broad snapshot of how an individual is faring - their subjective perception of how their life is in relation to their goals, expectations, standards, and concerns. To support more rigorous evaluation of arts and health interventions, this two-part review assesses the most widely used QoL scales, provides recommendations on scale adoption, and examines their frequency of use across arts domains. The first part of our review systematically identifies the most widely used QoL scales for the general adult population across the psychiatry, psychology, and mental health literature. According to our literature review, the top four scales for assessing QoL are: Euro-QoL (EQ-5D-3L/5L), SF-36, WHOQOL-BREF, and SF-12, with EQ-5D most frequently used in the target literature. The second part examines the scales’ frequency across 18 art domains, drawn from a broader set of arts domains from the literature. SF-36 is the most commonly used QoL scale for evaluating arts interventions, followed by WHOQOL-BREF, SF-12, and EQ-5D. Music accounts for the largest number of publications involving a QoL scale, while literary festivals and electronic arts interventions yielded the fewest publications.