Managing behavioral and psychological symptoms in Chinese elderly with dementia via group-based music intervention: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of a group music intervention in managing behavioral and psychological symptoms in Chinese elderly with dementia. This cluster randomized trial recruited 73 elderly participants with moderate dementia from 10 elderly residential homes and assigned them to the intervention ( n = 40) and control ( n = 33) group. The intervention included 16 half-hour sessions of music intervention with multi-sensory components over eight weeks and control group received standard care. Participants' levels of subjective moods and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation, aberrant motor behaviors, dysphoria, and irritability were assessed at baseline, the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and the end of the intervention. Controlling for baseline outcomes, latent growth modeling revealed significant intervention effects for agitation ( B = -1.03, SE = 0.30, p < 0.01), aberrant motor behavior ( B = -1.80, SE = 0.66, p < 0.01), and dysphoria ( B = -0.79, SE = 0.36, p < 0.05), with the intervention group showing improvements compared to no substantial changes in the control group. There were no significant intervention effects on irritability or subjective mood ( p > 0.05). The music intervention showed significant reduction in the behavioral and psychological symptoms in Chinese elderly patients with dementia. Elderly homes could adopt this practical non-pharmacological intervention as a strategy to improve the well-being of the elderly.