Masking Tape Art-Work May Provide Beneficial Positive Effects

Background: The authors and colleagues have been involved in treatment and care for the elderly with rehabilitation, Integrative Medicine (IM), art in hospitals for artworks using masking tape. Combined together, we conducted a pilot study for medical application of masking tape art-work for elderly subjects. Subjects and Methods: Subjects enrolled were 12 elderly patients with dementia regularly coming to day care center for rehabilitation (M/F 3/9, 78-100 years, 88.3±6.0 years). As methods, masking tape has been known as Washi Tape (wa=Japanese and shi=paper), which is adhesive tape easily to stick and peel off for decorative work. Protocol included i) working 2-3 times a week, ii) sticking masking tape on a rough sketch paper, iii) evaluation of several biomarkers before and after the intervention. Results: i) Artworks were performed satisfactory for each case, ii) grasping power (right) showed increasing tendency from 13.5±7.7kg to 14.8±6.8kg (p=0.11), iii) vitality test showed significantly increase (p=0.02). Discussion and Conclusion: Artworks of masking tape seem to be beneficial for improving grasping power and psychological condition. This study included other biomarkers such as Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), pinch power, language word test and Barthel index. We plan to develop further detail analyses in the future research.

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