A quasi-experimental mixed-method pilot study to check the efficacy of the "SOUND" active and passive music-based intervention on mental wellbeing and residual cognition of older people with dementia and dementia professionals' burnout: a research protocol

Sara Santini; Alessandra Merizzi; Ioana Caciula; Maria Joao Azevedo; Albert Hera; Lena Napradean; Mirko Di Rosa; Sabrina Quattrini

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1327272

A quasi-experimental mixed-method pilot study to check the efficacy of the "SOUND" active and passive music-based intervention on mental wellbeing and residual cognition of older people with dementia and dementia professionals' burnout: a research protocol

Front Psychol. 2024 Feb 14:15:1327272. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1327272. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Sara Santini^#¹, Alessandra Merizzi^#¹, Ioana Caciula², Maria Joao Azevedo³, Albert Hera⁴, Lena Napradean⁵, Mirko Di Rosa⁶, Sabrina Quattrini¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Aging, IRCCS INRCA-National Institute of Health and Science on Aging, Ancona, Italy.
² Asociatia Habilitas - Centru de Resurse si Formare Profesionala, Bucharest, Romania.
³ Associação-Sons do Estaminé, Trofa, Portugal.
⁴ Associazione Centro Musicale Alessandro Orlandini-ACMO, Ancona, Italy.
⁵ Scoala de Pian by Lena Napradean, Bucharest, Romania.
⁶ Centre for Biostatistics and Applied Geriatric Clinical Epidemiology, IRCCS INRCA-National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, Ancona, Italy.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: The SOUND method offers an innovative blended intervention based on music circle-activities and cognitive stimulation approaches which was co-designed by musicians, health professionals, older people with dementia, family caregivers and researchers, for its application in dementia settings. The purpose of the paper is to describe the detailed procedure of the quasi-experimental pilot study.

Method: The experimental phase of SOUND uses a mixed-method design encompassing qualitative and quantitative observations, cognitive testing, self-report and interviewer-assisted questionnaires to investigate the effectiveness of the intervention for 45 people with dementia and 45 professionals (15 in every study country: Italy, Portugal, Romania).

Results: The pilot study will be the first implementation of the SOUND intervention aiming to investigate the feasibility and preliminary effects of the method.

Conclusion: The novelty of SOUND is its multicomponent method, including the most evidenced features for improving the wellbeing of participants.

Keywords: cognitive function; dementia; music; non-pharmacological intervention; well-being.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of the article. The development of this protocol was supported by the Erasmus + program under the contract number 2021-1-IT02-KA220-ADU-000033494 and by Ricerca Corrente funding from the Italian Ministry of Health to IRCCS INRCA. These funding sources had no role in the design of this study and will not have any role during its execution, analyses, interpretation of the data, or decision to submit results.