Reducing Work-Related Stressors in the Care of People with Dementia through Music Intervention - What Factors Matter?

The disease-related behavioral changes of people with dementia, such as depression, place a high burden on caregivers. Music interventions can alleviate these neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). However, little is known about which people with dementia benefit most from it. Therefore, it is difficult to efficiently integrate music interventions into caregivers’ work processes. This study aimed to investigate whether there are factors that can be used to predict the effect of a music intervention on people with dementia. For this, a controlled pre-post-study with 28 people with dementia were conducted. Participants listened to their favorite music played during personal care. Before and after the intervention period, their NPS severity were assessed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire. The pre-post-differences in NPS severity were descriptively analyzed as a function of age, gender, dementia severity, need for care, and disease pattern. Finally, music intervention particularly improved the NPS of women and people with severe dementia or need for care. The findings enable caregivers to preselect people with dementia who are likely to respond positively to a music intervention. Thereby, a reduction in their stress can be expected because of the targeted alleviation of the stressor NPS and the elimination of ineffective applications.