Kids love Disney, so do many adults. There's a reason for this, and it's because many find Disney movies comforting, according to the New York Times. Disney is frequently connected with one's childhood, which is why researchers from the Medical University of Vienna played Disney movies for female cancer patients. They wanted to find out the effect of the movies to their overall well being.
Their study involved 50 women with gynaecological cancer. Half of the women were shown Disney movies while the other control group went without the movies. The average age of the women in the Disney group was 59, while the average age of the control group was 62.
The authors made it a goal to monitor the patients' emotional and social functioning, overall health status, and perceived fatigue. After the trials, the participants were asked to complete surveys.
Disney movies with a happy ending and positive theme were chosen by the researchers such as The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood, Mary Poppins, and The Sword in the Stone.
The Disney movies were played on portable DVD players during a controlled clinical experiment. Videos containing unhappy themes such as Dumbo and Bambi were excluded from the list, except they picked films about strong main characters who are brave, curious, and faithful.
According to the study's lead author, Dr. Johannes Ott from the university's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, they handpicked movies that contained music and stories.
Furthermore, they also chose older movies wherein the patients were more likely to recognize and evoke memories from their own childhood. According to Ott, music in films enhances emotion and can create impressions. He adds that emotions can take an audience back to a time when they first heard a tune or music and can help recall pleasant memories during childhood.
The results of the study found that after six cycles of chemotherapy, the 25 patients who watched the Disney films became less irritable, tense, worried, and depressed compared to the remaining 25. The findings of the study were published in JAMA Network Open.
The new study follows previous research that reported 90 percent of women undergoing cancer treatment had shown improvements after maintaining a positive attitude in coping with the disease.
Disney Temporarily Distracts People From the Hardships of Life
There's a reason why Disneyland is called the 'happiest place on Earth', and this goes for both kids and adults. Dr. Stephanie Takaragawa from Chapman University's Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences took an anthropological look at Disneyland and said that every inch of the park is designed in a nostalgic, yet exciting ambience. She adds that it makes visitors realize why they are so enchanted by the magic and nostalgia that is Disney itself.
The same goes with Disney films as the researchers of the study estimated the 'emotional functioning score' of Disney viewers as 86.9 compared to 66.3 for those who didn't watch them.
They also found that watching the movies made the patients feel less helpless, as it lessened symptoms of fatigue, such as tiredness, exhaustion and frustration.
Ott says that in addition to giving distraction, Disney movies tell stories of triumphing over difficulties without necessarily resolving them. He adds that the films are more about accepting change than overcoming all odds.
He says that the findings suggest that watching Disney movies during chemotherapy treatment is correlated with improved emotional and social functioning, and fatigue status in patients with gynaecological cancer.
