Dementia Choirs for Social and Psychological Wellbeing

Summary

Loneliness is common in both persons living with dementia and their informal caregivers, and a factor negatively affecting disease progression, health and wellbeing. However, intervention studies to address loneliness show inconsistent effects. This study aims to evaluate effect of a community-based group intervention - music therapy informed dementia choirs - on loneliness for home-dwelling people with dementia and their informal caregivers. We will recruit participants to five dementia choirs with 15-20 people in each and implement a crossover study with measures collected at four timepoints: baseline, 12-week follow up, 22-week follow-up after an extended summer holiday, and 12-week follow-up after the summer holiday. The primary outcome, loneliness in participants living with dementia, will be measured using the De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale. Secondary outcomes will be depression, experience of meaning in life, apathy and mood for the participants living with dementia, and loneliness and caregiver burden for the informal caregivers. Cognition in the participants living with dementia, measured with the RUDAS assessment tool, will be included as a control variable. Further, measurements to evaluate the cost effectiveness of the choir intervention will be included, and qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences and possible impacts of the choir intervention in the participants' lives.

Conditions

• Dementia
• Informal Caregivers (Family and Friends)

Interventions

OTHER

Dementia choir

Music therapy informed dementia choirs will be delivered once a week. Rehearsals last app. 2 hours, including a social break. Each choir will be led by 1 conductor and 1 accompanist. The choir leaders will have relevant professional qualifications that supplement each other, such as a music therapist, music pedagogue, conductor, singer, singing teacher, or health care professional with additional music competence. They will be trained by the research team to deliver the choirs in a dementia friendly and music therapy informed way. In addition, the choir leaders will receive supervision from the research team throughout the intervention periods. The choirs will involve volunteers to assist during rehearsals and breaks. The volunteers will also receive training on how to support the choir participants in a dementia friendly way.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Oslo Municipality

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Oslo

  collaborator OTHER

• Norwegian Academy of Music

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kjersti Johansson, PhD · Norwegian Academy of Music

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-03-03

Primary Completion

2025-12-15

Completion

2026-09-30

Countries

• Norway

Study Locations