Listening to preferred music with people with severe dementia who wander: A feasibility study

Using a modified protocol found to be effective in reducing agitation in people with dementia, we trialled the feasibility of using listening to preferred music with people with severe dementia who wander in residential aged care. Ten residents listened to their selection of preferred music for 20 minutes daily for 3 weeks under two conditions: immediately before unique peak activity periods or at randomly selected times. Of the 150 scheduled interventions, 92 were commenced and 60% of these were tolerated for the full 20 minutes. Sessions did not proceed when the participant refused (n=37), was asleep (n=12) or was not available (n=9). The intervention stopped prematurely when headphones were removed (n=20) or the participant walked away from the speaker (n=12). Despite the relatively high number of interventions that did not proceed, those who participated were observed to express more positive (58%) or neutral (32%) mood, with negative mood only recorded during 10% of the observation time. In addition, while not statistically significant, participants were observed to walk and enter the private space of others less frequently during the intervention period.
These findings were consistent with staff and family member’s views. Further investigations are needed to explore the high refusal rates as well as generalisation of effects beyond the intervention time