Online virtual trips to a museum may benefit older people in surprising ways, suggests a new study.
Researchers identified an association between regular online museum visits and a reduction of frailty and cognitive decline.
The culturally enriching activity made seniors feel less isolated, which earlier studies have shown is linked to a range of health complications.
They also ended up with a better quality of life following the trips.
For the study, researchers in Canada teamed up with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and recruited 106 people over the age of 65 who lived in the city.
Half of them took part in weekly virtual museum visits for 45 minutes over a three month period. They also joined a 15 minute question and answer session with a museum guide at the end.
The other half of participants did not take part in any cultural activities at all.
The group that did the visits showed “significant” improvements in their social isolation, wellbeing, quality of life and frailty assessment scores when compared to the control group, the authors said.
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