This one sounds a bit dry, we know. But to do high-quality research into the possible benefits of creative activities, we need to know what evidence other researchers have already published. This way we can learn from them, and make sure we aren’t repeating any studies that have already been done.

To see some the academic evidence and other publications already available, see our Literature Page.

Visit our Research Gate Project Page to see how this work is progressing.

The literature review is now registered on PROSPERO, which is an ‘international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care, welfare, public health, education, crime, justice, and international development, where there is a health related outcome.‘

We registered the review online because it makes sure that we are being open and honest about the project during the review process. It helps reduce ‘publication bias’, which means we cant selectively choose interesting literature, and that we have to report on everything that we find. PROSPERO helps us to do this becuase there is a permanent record of the review and what we plan to do. Read the project outline here.

Project Timeline

This project officially started in May 2018.

May 2018

Search terms finalised with help from Contributors (coming soon – information on why and how we search online literature databases).

Our chosen search terms were:

(((knit* OR crochet OR embroider*)) ) AND ( ((mental health OR wellness OR wellbeing OR psych* OR (Quality of life) OR positiv* OR optimis* OR stress OR resilience)))

June 2018 

Online literature searches run

Results screened for relevance by Emma and Anne. There were lots of Surgical papers referring to needles and sewing, as well as a lot of Engineering papers about making textiles which had to be removed as they are not related to the topics outlined above.

July 2018

Meeting with contributors to check the searches are still appropriate and get feedback on some of the papers we have found.