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Risk of Falls in Patients Attending Music Sessions on an Acute Geriatric Ward

NCT ID: NCT03348657

Last Updated: 2017-11-21

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

152 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2014-10-01

Study Completion Date

2016-05-31

Brief Summary

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Music therapy has long been used to improve communication, health and quality of life. Music is also known to regulate pain, mood and anxiety levels. In the geriatric population, music listening has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation and anxiety. As a result, the use of music is recommended by national guidelines to control the behavioural symptoms of patients in long-term care facilities. Despite the demonstrated positive benefits of music for health and behavioural outcomes, very few studies using music have been performed in the hospital environment and even fewer on short-stay geriatric units.

Older adults are the fastest-growing group of patients admitted to hospital, and the age-related burden of non-fatal health outcomes is one of the main challenges faced by hospitals. One of those age-related burdens is related to falls. Falls are highly frequent in geriatric patients, particularly on short-stay geriatric units, with a prevalence of up to 30 %. Falls are associated with increased length of hospital stay, high health-care costs and negative non-fatal health outcomes including multi-morbidities and related disabilities.

Previous research has shown that music may decrease the risk of falls. For example, it was shown that the rhythm of music, combined with physical exercise, can improve measures of gait stability. In older community dwellers, music-based programs have demonstrated that improvement of gait stability decreased the risk of falls. We therefore hypothesized that music listening may decrease the risk of falls of geriatric patients admitted to a short stay unit.

This study aimed to examine the influence of music listening on the risk of falls in patients admitted to a Geriatric Assessment Unit (GAU) by comparing the Morse Fall Scale (MFS) score for patients who attended music listening sessions and in control patients who did not attend these music sessions. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the effect of music listening on the risk of falls in a geriatric unit.

Detailed Description

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Music is often used as a non-verbal means of emotional expression. As communication can be impaired in the elderly due to cognitive impairment and diseases, music can be used to recreate communication between the patients and their environment. Music therapy has long been used to improve communication, health and quality of life. Music is also known to regulate pain, mood and anxiety levels. In the geriatric population, music listening has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation and anxiety. As a result, the use of music is recommended by national guidelines to control the behavioural symptoms of patients in long-term care facilities. Despite the demonstrated positive benefits of music for health and behavioural outcomes, very few studies using music have been performed in the hospital environment and even fewer on short-stay geriatric units.

Older adults are the fastest-growing group of patients admitted to hospital, and the age-related burden of non-fatal health outcomes is one of the main challenges faced by hospitals. Thus, assessing and addressing the needs of the growing number of geriatric patients is necessary. One of those age-related burdens is related to falls. Falls are highly frequent in geriatric patients, particularly on short-stay geriatric units, with a prevalence of up to 30 %. Falls are associated with increased length of hospital stay, high health-care costs and negative non-fatal health outcomes including multi-morbidities and related disabilities.

Previous research has shown that music may decrease the risk of falls. For example, it was shown that the rhythm of music, combined with physical exercise, can improve measures of gait stability. In older community dwellers, music-based programs have demonstrated that improvement of gait stability decreased the risk of falls. We therefore hypothesized that music listening may decrease the risk of falls of geriatric patients admitted to a short stay unit.

This study aimed to examine the influence of music listening on the risk of falls in patients admitted to a Geriatric Assessment Unit (GAU) by comparing the Morse Fall Scale (MFS) score for patients who attended music listening sessions and in control patients who did not attend these music sessions. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the effect of music listening on the risk of falls in a geriatric unit.

Conditions

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Fall Music Aged

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NON_RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Music intervention Group

Patients who participated to at least one music session provided by volunteers while being admitted to the geriatric assessment unit. Participation to the music sessions was voluntary.

Group Type OTHER

Music Session

Intervention Type OTHER

Three to four times a week, volunteer musicians came to the geriatric assessment unit and would provide music sessions (duration of about 60 minutes) to the patients who volunteered to attend.

Control Group

Patients who did not want to participate to the music sessions provided by volunteers while being admitted to the geriatric assessment unit

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Music Session

Three to four times a week, volunteer musicians came to the geriatric assessment unit and would provide music sessions (duration of about 60 minutes) to the patients who volunteered to attend.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* first admission to the GAU
* length of stay between 5 and 31 days

Exclusion Criteria

* none
Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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McGill University

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Shek Fung

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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St. Mary's Hospital Center

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Site Status

Countries

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Canada

References

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Chabot J, Beauchet O, Fung S, Peretz I. Decreased risk of falls in patients attending music sessions on an acute geriatric ward: results from a retrospective cohort study. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2019 Mar 28;19(1):76. doi: 10.1186/s12906-019-2484-x.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 30922356 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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SMHC # 14-31

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id