Evidence-based art in the hospital.

Background: Evidence-based art is the investigation of art effects and art investigated for effects. In this study the evidence regarding patient preferences for art styles and effects of art in nonpsychiatric hospitals and outpatient departments was reviewed.

Methods: Results from original articles were retrieved by a scoping PubMed search and by browsing the internet using the terms "evidence based art", "evidence based design", "art and hospital" and "design and hospital", "art effect", "design effect", "landscape preference" and "abstract art figurative art".