Abstract
Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD) is a prevalent, costly, and complicated disease. With over 6 million Americans affected and the cost of treatment soaring to over $320 billion dollars annually, there is a growing need for low-cost interventions to treat symptoms. Routinely listening to personalized music selections has been shown to reduce agitation—the most common symptom of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. The purpose of this study was to provide a personalized music listening (PML) intervention of thirty minutes to 10 nursing home residents with dementia. Thirty-minute PML sessions occurred multiple times a week over six weeks. The inclusion criteria were English-speaking nursing home residents over age 65 with ADRD. The Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) was administered every two weeks throughout the study. The objective of the study was to reduce symptoms of agitation as indicated by the CMAI scores of participants. Results from a one-way repeated measures ANOVA documented significant improvement in agitation as measured by participant CMAI scores from pre-intervention to post-intervention. These results suggest that short-term, personalized music listening can be an effective and low-cost means for improving dementia-related agitation.
Keywords
personalized music listening, music therapy, agitation, dementia, long-term care residents
Improving Dementia Symptoms Through Personalized Music
CASB 103
Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD) is a prevalent, costly, and complicated disease. With over 6 million Americans affected and the cost of treatment soaring to over $320 billion dollars annually, there is a growing need for low-cost interventions to treat symptoms. Routinely listening to personalized music selections has been shown to reduce agitation—the most common symptom of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. The purpose of this study was to provide a personalized music listening (PML) intervention of thirty minutes to 10 nursing home residents with dementia. Thirty-minute PML sessions occurred multiple times a week over six weeks. The inclusion criteria were English-speaking nursing home residents over age 65 with ADRD. The Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) was administered every two weeks throughout the study. The objective of the study was to reduce symptoms of agitation as indicated by the CMAI scores of participants. Results from a one-way repeated measures ANOVA documented significant improvement in agitation as measured by participant CMAI scores from pre-intervention to post-intervention. These results suggest that short-term, personalized music listening can be an effective and low-cost means for improving dementia-related agitation.