Treatment differentiation between group music therapy and recreational choir singing for people with dementia and depression living in residential care homes: structured video analysis of the interventions in the MIDDEL trial

Introduction: Music-based interventions are often implemented in residential dementia care to support quality of life and wellbeing, and to minimize neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression. A recent international randomized controlled trial called MIDDEL ("Music Interventions for Dementia and Depression in Elderly Care") compared efficacy of two popular music-based interventions: recreational choir singing (RCS) and group music therapy (GMT). The current study was undertaken to determine similarities and differences between the delivery of these two interventions within the MIDDEL trial. Methods: To determine treatment differentiation between RCS and GMT in MIDDEL, we undertook structured video analysis of a random sample of the available session videos from the trial. For each intervention, the videos were analyzed against a predefined checklist, which included items across three music-based activities: singing familiar songs, instrument playing and movement to music. Pearson's chi-square tests were used to assess whether the type of intervention significantly influenced the delivery of the checklist items. Results: =