Exploring the impact of community-based choral participation on cognitive function and well-being for persons with dementia: evidence from the Voices in Motion project

Abstract

Objectives

Music-based interventions are postulated to mitigate cognitive decline in individuals with dementia. However, the mechanisms underlying why music-based interventions facilitate cognitive benefits remain unknown. The present study examines whether a choral intervention can modulate patterns of cognitive change in persons with dementia and whether within-person variation in affect is associated with this change.

Methods

Thirty-three older adults with dementia engaged weekly in the Voices in Motion (ViM) study consisting of 3 choral seasons spanning 18-months. Performance on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was assessed monthly within each choral season using a longitudinal intensive repeated-measures design. Three-level multilevel models were employed to disaggregate between- and within-person effects across short- (month-to-month) and long-term (season-to-season) intervals.

Results

ViM participants exhibited an annual MMSE decline of 1.8 units, notably less than the clinically meaningful 3.3 units indicated by non-intervention literature. Further, variability in negative affect shared a within-person time-varying association with MMSE performance; decreases in negative affect, relative to one’s personal average, were linked to corresponding improvements in cognitive function.

Conclusion

Engagement in the ViM choral intervention may attenuate cognitive decline for persons with dementia via a reduction of psychological comorbidities such as elevated negative affect.

Keywords:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• cognition
• music
• multilevel modeling
• affect

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Alzheimer Society of Canada and the Pacific Alzheimer Research Foundation [grant number 18-20]. Stuart W. S. MacDonald acknowledges the gracious support of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists.