Clinical effectiveness of music interventions for dementia and depression in elderly care (MIDDEL): Australian cohort of an international pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Dementia and depression are highly prevalent and comorbid conditions among older adults living in care homes and are associated with individual distress and rising societal costs. Effective, scalable, and feasible interventions are needed. Music interventions have shown promising effects, but the current evidence base is inconclusive. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of two different music interventions on the depressive symptoms of people with dementia living in residential aged care. Methods: We implemented a 2 × 2 factorial cluster-randomised controlled trial to determine whether group music therapy (GMT) is more effective than no GMT with standard care, ..