Remini-Sing: Therapeutic choirs to improve wellbeing and relationship quality for community dwelling people with dementia and their family caregivers

• Register: ANZCTR
• Last refreshed on: 22 July 2019
• Main ID: ACTRN12617001513303
• Date of registration: 27/10/2017
• Prospective Registration: Yes
• Primary sponsor: The University of Melbourne
• Public title: Remini-Sing: Therapeutic choirs to improve wellbeing and relationship quality for community dwelling people with dementia and their family caregivers
• Scientific title: Remini-Sing: Therapeutic choirs to improve wellbeing and relationship quality for community dwelling people with dementia and their family caregivers
• Date of first enrolment: 04/05/2018
• Target sample size: 180
• Recruitment status: Completed
• URL: https://anzctr.org.au/ACTRN12617001513303.aspx
• Study type: Interventional
• Study design: Purpose: Treatment; Allocation: Randomised controlled trial; Masking: Blinded (masking used);Assignment: Parallel;Type of endpoint: Efficacy;
• Phase: Not Applicable

Countries of recruitment

Australia

Contacts

• Name: Dr Jeanette Tamplin

• Name: Dr Jeanette Tamplin

Key inclusion & exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: Community-dwelling people living with dementia (PwD) and their co-residing family caregivers (FCG) will be eligible for the project.
Both PwD and FCG participants must have functional hearing and speak English.
For PwD, inclusion criteria are: aged at least 60 years and a confirmed diagnosis of dementia, OR probable dementia (i.e. a cognitive impairment level of 12–24 on the Mini Mental State Exam OR features consistent with Alzheimer’s type dementia as per DSM-V.
For FCG, inclusion criteria include age equal or greater than 18 years and either a spouse/partner, family member (eg. daughter or son), or close friend.
Exclusion criteria: Living in residential care at time of recruitment
Unable to hear at all (deafness)
Unable to speak English

Age minimum: 18 Years
Age maximum: No limit
Gender: Both males and females

Health Condition(s) or Problem(s) studied

dementia;caregiver burden;
dementia
caregiver burden

Mental Health - Depression

Neurological - Dementias

Intervention(s)

Participants randomised to the music therapy intervention group will attend 20 weekly 2-hour choir sessions consisting of singing and social interaction. 90 minutes of singing activities (vocal warm-ups, participant requested songs, round singing, and simple part singing) will be followed by 30 minutes for social interaction over refreshments. The intervention will be facilitated by a Registered Music Therapist in a community venue (ie. community hall, day centre). Music therapist will receive training in how to deliver the intervention protocol (the therapeutic choir sessions) to ensure standardisation of the intervention. An intervention protocol has been developed for this training. This training includes strategies for how to provide cues and modify songs and musical activities to maximise engagement for people with dementia and also their family caregivers. It will also focus on strategies for managing safety issues and negative responses to the intervention.

The intervention also includes provision of education to participants in the intervention group on how to use their own music therapeutically at home (to promote relaxation and reminiscence) and recordings of songs from choir sessions to use as desired. This education will be provided in the form of written handouts to caregivers with tips and examples for how music can be used to manage behaviour and modify mood. The therapist will check in with caregivers regularly throughout the intervention and provide feedback and suggestions for how to use music therapeutically at home. There is no minimum requirement for participants to use the home music program, rather we will monitor the amount of home music use via a diary completed at each weekly choir session. Attendance logs will also be completed at each weekly choir session to monitor adherence to the intervention.

Primary Outcome(s)

Relationship quality between people living with dementia (PwD) and their family caregivers (FCG) as measured by the Quality of Caregiver and Patient Relationship scale (QCPR) (Spruytte et al 2002).[Relationship quality is assessed at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21).]

Secondary Outcome(s)

Anxiety in the participants with dementia is measured using the Rating Anxiety in Dementia Scale (RAID) (Shankar et al, 1999).[Anxiety is assessed at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21).]

Cost-effectiveness of intervention will be assessed by calculating difference between cost of the intervention and costs incurred from medication use and health services use (PBS & MBS records) as well as participant out-of-pocket costs. We will also examine economic benefit via the calculation of quality adjusted life years (QALYS).[Quality of life measures used for the calculation of quality adjusted life years are collected at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21). We will also extract data on medication use and health services use over the intervention period for all participants at the end of the study.]

Caregiver burden is assessed in family caregivers via the Zarit Burden Scale (Zarit et al, 1980).[Caregiver burden is assessed at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21).]

Depression for participants with dementia will be assessed using the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) (Alexopoulos et al 1988).
[PWD depression is assessed at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21).]

Quality of life for participants with dementia will be assessed using the Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease (QOL-AD) (Logsdon et al 1999) for people living with dementia.
[Quality of life is assessed at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21).]

Caregiver depression will be assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9) (Kroenke et al 2001) for family caregivers
[Caregiver depression is assessed at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21).]

Caregiver quality of life will be assessed using the Assessment of Quality of Life-8D (AQoL-8D) (Richardson et al 2014).[Caregiver quality of life is assessed at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21).]

Social connectedness is measured for both people living with dementia and family caregivers using the Social Connectedness Scale (Lee & Robbins, 1995).[Social connectedness is assessed at baseline, midpoint (week 11), and following completion of 20 choir sessions (week 21).]

Secondary ID(s)

none

Source(s) of Monetary Support

NH&MRC

Ethics review

Status: Approved
Approval date:
Contact:

University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee

Results

• Results available: Yes
• Date Posted: 18/07/2019
• Date Completed: 26/02/2019