While many turn to products and even surgery to slow the physical effects of aging, Health Care Sciences Professor Gene Cohen thinks he has the answer to holding off some of the mental effects.

Cohen has researched how engaging in a variety of creative endeavors, including singing and folk art, affects the health of senior citizens. The results have been overwhelmingly positive, he said.

Studying groups of senior citizens that enrolled in creative programs in San Francisco, New York City and in D.C., Cohen closely monitored the health of participants in each program through a series of questionnaires administered by trained adults. He found that the health of senior citizens benefited from two aspects of his study – social interaction and use of creativity in these programs.

“One area is called sense of control, when people in general, older adults in particular, have a sense of mastery, of control (of a craft), and (therefore) have positive health outcomes,” Cohen said of the benefits of exercising the creative portion of the mind.

The other area of study involved the meaningful interaction of senior citizens with one another, which produced immune system results similar to those seen in his study of creative engagement.

People involved in the study also were found to have increased moods and motivation, which Cohen said he observed directly. He met with participants in San Francisco and New York, but maintained a particularly close relationship with the group in D.C. Those participants sang in a choir of about 120 people that was broken in to three smaller rehearsal groups.

One example of a success story is that of a 94-year-old choral member who was less than confident in her ability to sing, yet after joining the group, Cohen saw an increasingly enthusiastic response.

“She got extremely animated telling me she found she could sing, she found she was improving, that every week she goes to rehearsal her ability to read music improves,” Cohen said. “You could just feel that sense of mastery and exhilaration that she felt. You could just sort of sense the impact on her well-being.”

One year into the D.C. study, Cohen’s research indicates his senior citizen participants are using less medication, falling less and visiting doctors less. Cohen said the benefits that senior citizens reap from exercising their creativity regularly could have an enormous impact on services like Medicare.

“It could mean tens, millions, thousands of dollars in savings for medications. There are more people over 65 in the United States than in the entire population of Canada. Even small changes in utilization in terms of doctor visits and Medicare (can have an enormous effect).”

Though the D.C. study was concluded several years ago, the choir is still going strong. Choir director Jeanne Kelly, who continues to work extensively with the people who participated in Cohen’s study, said she continually observes the benefits of senior citizens.

“Aging can be lonely; aging can be very depressing,” she said. “These people are preparing for these concerts. They have something to look forward to. They all look forward to putting on their black concert attire and getting on a bus and going to the Kennedy Center and performing, and having a chance to give back to their community, having a real sense of accomplishment.”

Mary Anne Saunders, associate professor of human services, has hosted Cohen as a lecturer in her Women and Aging course.

“What he does is he helps broaden the way students look at aging,” Saunders said of her utilization of Cohen as a guest lecturer. “They typically look at aging in terms of decline and loss. Cohen always presents the other side of the coin, where people can remain creative … that your creativity does not deteriorate as you age.”