Background and aims
Cultural activities has been shown to positively affect patients with chronic pain regarding symptoms, mood and quality of life. Music and dancing have shown positive effects in studies on pain intensity, depression and quality of life. Also, cultural activities at work might lead to better health among the employees.
A co-operation project between the Stockholm Department of Rehabilitation and the City council´s Culture administration aimed to explore if a rehabilitation program with cultural activities could affect the participants’ experiences of symptoms and quality of life. 
Methods
Seventeen female patients with chronic pain participated in a rehabilitation program with cultural activities during 6-8 weeks. The program consisted of visits at cultural events and own cultural activities such as visiting concerts, making crafts and making a movie. Pedagogues specialized in different cultural activities supervised the program. 
Data was collected with the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation (SQRP). The participants filled in the questionnaires from the SQRP before their first meeting, before discharge and at one-year follow up. The SQRP consist of reliable and valid measures recommended to describe health status of patients with chronic pain and to follow-up outcomes of pain rehabilitation.
Results
Preliminary results showed improvement in quality of life according to EQ5D index (p=0.016) and bodily pain according to SF-36 (p=0.026) after the rehabilitation program .
Conclusions
 Rehabilitation with cultural activities might improve quality of life and pain in patients with chronic pain.

REHABILITATION WITH CULTURAL ACTIVITIES FOR PATIENTS WITH CHONIC PAIN NEEDING A LANGUAGE INTERPRETER, CO-OPERATION PROJECT BETWEEN A REHABILITATION CLINIC AND THE COUNTY CULTURE ADMINISTRATION