The Effects of Researcher-Composed Music at Mealtime on Agitation in Nursing Home Residents With Dementia

Interventions for Improving Mealtime Experiences in Long-Term Care

“…More time was spent with meals when music was played (23,24) and there was an increase in calories consumed (23,77). These results across more than one study suggest a likely benefit of music for a variety of outcomes, as there was a significant change (minimum P < 0.05) in at least one outcome variable in each study (23)(24)(25)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77). Attrition rate was low among the studies, ranging from zero to nine, meanwhile the sample size ranged from 5 to 41 participants (23)(24)(25)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77).…”

“…Other outcomes were time spent eating, food consumption, and caloric intake (23,24,77). All of the music interventions except one found a decrease in agitation and nonaggressive behaviors in the weeks that music was playing (25,(74)(75)(76)(77); thus the one study that found only an improvement during the week following the intervention was surprising (73), although another study also showed a two-week linger effect (76). More time was spent with meals when music was played (23,24) and there was an increase in calories consumed (23,77).…”

“…Several of these interventions involved more than one activity (e.g., décor changes and way food prepared=served) (39,49,51,58,69,70), while others consisted of only a single strategy such as changing tableware color (71,72). Musical interventions (n ¼ 8 of 17) were a large proportion of single activity environmental interventions (23)(24)(25)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77). The most common design was within-group time series=crossover (n ¼ 8) and were from the United States (n ¼ 5), Taiwan, Sweden, and Canada.…”

“…These interventions consisted of piano and= or nature sounds (73,76), relaxing slow tempo (24,25,74,76,77), classical music (74,75,77), or a combination of different styles such as music residents were familiar with (24) or preferred (23). Outcome measures for persons with dementia were focused on behavior change such as physical staff opinion that SLEs better for residents as they could influence food and daily activities, staff thought mealtimes resembled home-like situation and verbal agitation, aggression, physical nonaggression, and hiding or hoarding behaviors (25,(73)(74)(75)(76)(77). Other outcomes were time spent eating, food consumption, and caloric intake (23,24,77).…”

“…Eight studies investigated a music intervention during mealtime and seven used a time series=crossover design by alternating weeks between music played and no music played (23-25, 73-75, 77); the other used a pretest-posttest design (76). These interventions consisted of piano and= or nature sounds (73, 76), relaxing slow tempo (24,25,74,76,77), classical music (74, 75, 77), or a combination of different styles such as music residents were familiar with (24) or preferred (23). Outcome measures for persons with dementia were focused on behavior change such as physical FIGURE 3 Distribution of studies by year of publication.…”