Authors (including presenting author) :
WONG PS, CHEUNG SF, LUI KY, SO YC, SO CT
Affiliation :
Occupational Therapy Department, Lai King Building, Princess Margaret Hospital, Hong Kong
Introduction :
Music therapy provided a comfortable medium for patient to express themselves, structure their behavior and encourage social interaction with positive music experience. Much research investigated effectiveness of music therapy including improvements in emotional development, social skills, cognitive and motor functions. Some evidence supported music therapy in mood improvement but there was not much research supporting motor and cognitive improvements on patients with cognitive impairments.
Objectives :
To further investigate effectiveness of therapeutic music group on motor and cognitive aspects in addition to emotional aspect on patients with cognitive impairments
Methodology :
Therapeutic music group as a treatment modality in occupational therapy for geriatric day hospital (GDH) patients was revised. GDH patients, with interests in music group and cognitive impairments-who had Hong Kong Montreal Cognitive Assessment (HK-MoCA) score below 16th percentile with age and education corrected, were selected. From January to March 2019, participants participated in six one-hour sessions which included singing and playing musical instruments following rhythm. The focus was on attention, reaction time and upper limb (UL) coordination. Program was led by occupational therapist (OT) and trained assistants once to twice per week. The Minnesota dexterity test (placing subtest), digit span test and general happiness scale (GHS) were adopted for pre and post assessments. Specially designed questionnaire was used to collect feedback afterwards. Assessments were done by OT, trained assistants and OT students. Paired t-test (SPSS statistics 19) was used for analysis.
Result & Outcome :
Pilot result indicated that 17 patients were recruited but 9 patients completed and 8 patients dropped out as most were discharged from GDH unexpectedly before completion of 6 sessions. Six of them were females. Mean age of participants was 76.44 years old+/-9.36. The HK-MoCA mean score was 11.11+/-5.06. Mood was significantly improved in GHS (p< 0.01). Some improvement was shown in the Minnesota dexterity test though not statistically significant (p=0.153). All patients agreed that music group could improve attention, reaction time, UL coordination and mood. All were satisfied with the program and many reported being joyful. Marked improvement was shown in mood. This psychosocial treatment effect was particularly crucial to elderly patients suffering from recent or chronic illness for further lifestyle changes. Challenge in recruiting GDH participants was existed due to uncontrolled personal or clinical reason. It was highly recommended to further enhance cognitive and UL training.
