Art therapies and cognitive function in elderly with subjective cognitive decline: a protocol for a network meta-analysis

Introduction Subjective cognitive decline means a decline in the subjective perception of self-cognitive function, which is likely to evolve into mild cognitive impairment and dementia. The number of elderly with subjective cognitive decline has increased, bringing huge burdens and challenges to caregivers and society. With the increase in research on art therapies, some of them have gradually been proven to be effective for cognitive function. Therefore, this study aims to summarise the evidence and identify the best art therapy for elderly with subjective cognitive decline. Methods and analysis We will include published randomised controlled trials written in English and Chinese if the intervention is one of the art therapies and applied in people aged 60 and above with subjective cognitive decline. Eight electronic databases, including the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier, China BioMedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Database and Wanfang Database, will be searched from January 2013 to December 2023. Art therapies will mainly include music therapy, reminiscence therapy, painting therapy, dance therapy, reading therapy, horticultural therapy, museum therapy, calligraphy therapy and so on. The outcome will be cognitive function. Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment will be performed by two reviewers. The risk of bias will be evaluated according to the Cochrane Collaboration’s risk-of-bias tool, and the evidence quality will be assessed with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation. Standard pairwise meta-analysis and Bayesian network meta-analysis will be conducted. The probabilities of each art therapy will be ranked based on the surface under the cumulative ranking curve. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not required for reviewing published studies. To provide important evidence for clinicians and guideline developers, the findings of this study will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. PROSPERO registration number CRD42023443773.