Preliminary Randomised Evaluation of Singing in Dementia 2024
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Preliminary Randomised Evaluation of Singing in Dementia
IRAS ID
313298
Contact name
Justine Schneider
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Preliminary Randomised Evaluation of Singing in Dementia
Dementia affects about eight hundred thousand people in the UK, with the number expected to rise. As well as searching for medical treatments for dementia, there is a need for helpful social activities to support people with dementia to live well with the condition. People with dementia are at risk of social isolation and mental health problems, and family carers can feel unsupported and over-burdened by their role. Studies have suggested that group singing can improve mood, memory and relationships for people with dementia, and establish support networks which help carers. The shared activity of singing together may have benefits for the relationship between person with dementia and carer too. However, to date no large scale studies about community singing and dementia have been conducted.
This study is a feasibility study, meaning that it aims to try out a study design to see if it would work on a larger scale. In particular, we want to see if we can recruit enough people to take part in the study, and whether they will remain in the study for long enough to collect all the data we need. We will aim to recruit 80 people with a diagnosis of dementia and their carers. They will be randomly assigned to either attend group singing straight away, or to wait for twelve weeks before attending group singing. We will collect data about their quality of life, mood, and cognitive function at several time points, so we can compare the differences between people who attend singing straight away and those who wait. The data we collect from this feasibility study will allow us to plan a larger trial of singing for people with dementia.
Summary of Results
Although singing is popular amongst people with dementia livening in the community, ‘hard’ evidence of its effects is lacking. Can a formal trial approach remedy this absence? PRESIDE (Preliminary Randomised Evaluation of Singing in Dementia) set out to explore how such a trial could best be designed. It looked at the likelihood of recruiting sufficient numbers, the acceptability of randomising them to a singing group or a waiting list, and at how many people dropped out over the six-month study. It also tested a range of structured measurement tools to see how well they reflected differences at the start and change over time. We also interviewed participants about their experiences of the singing groups and of participating in the research.
Our target was to recruit 80 couples where one partner had dementia. Over nine months in three towns we enrolled 36 couples. Overall, the people who joined the study attended consistently and 72% completed the 10-week course. However, 33% of the (waiting list) control group failed to attend any of their allocated sessions, compared to 6% of the participants who were not asked to wait 12 weeks before joining the singing group. Although the number of participants was too small to show significant differences, the people with dementia who were in the singing group had better scores on all the outcome measures at three months, compared to the people on the waiting list. In-depth interviews revealed detailed information about how and why the singing groups benefitted both individuals with dementia and their care partners. These results may be used to design future studies of community singing in dementia and the explain the mechanisms whereby singing affects participants in this context.
REC name
Wales REC 3
REC reference
22/WA/0192
Date of REC Opinion
19 Aug 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion