Risk of Falls in Patients Attending Music Sessions on an Acute Geriatric Ward

November 17, 2017 updated by: Shek Fung, McGill University

Decreased Risk of Falls in Patients Attending Music Sessions on an Acute Geriatric Ward

Music therapy has long been used to improve communication, health and quality of life. Music is also known to regulate pain, mood and anxiety levels. In the geriatric population, music listening has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation and anxiety. As a result, the use of music is recommended by national guidelines to control the behavioural symptoms of patients in long-term care facilities. Despite the demonstrated positive benefits of music for health and behavioural outcomes, very few studies using music have been performed in the hospital environment and even fewer on short-stay geriatric units.

Older adults are the fastest-growing group of patients admitted to hospital, and the age-related burden of non-fatal health outcomes is one of the main challenges faced by hospitals. One of those age-related burdens is related to falls. Falls are highly frequent in geriatric patients, particularly on short-stay geriatric units, with a prevalence of up to 30 %. Falls are associated with increased length of hospital stay, high health-care costs and negative non-fatal health outcomes including multi-morbidities and related disabilities.

Previous research has shown that music may decrease the risk of falls. For example, it was shown that the rhythm of music, combined with physical exercise, can improve measures of gait stability. In older community dwellers, music-based programs have demonstrated that improvement of gait stability decreased the risk of falls. We therefore hypothesized that music listening may decrease the risk of falls of geriatric patients admitted to a short stay unit.

This study aimed to examine the influence of music listening on the risk of falls in patients admitted to a Geriatric Assessment Unit (GAU) by comparing the Morse Fall Scale (MFS) score for patients who attended music listening sessions and in control patients who did not attend these music sessions. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the effect of music listening on the risk of falls in a geriatric unit.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Music is often used as a non-verbal means of emotional expression. As communication can be impaired in the elderly due to cognitive impairment and diseases, music can be used to recreate communication between the patients and their environment. Music therapy has long been used to improve communication, health and quality of life. Music is also known to regulate pain, mood and anxiety levels. In the geriatric population, music listening has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation and anxiety. As a result, the use of music is recommended by national guidelines to control the behavioural symptoms of patients in long-term care facilities. Despite the demonstrated positive benefits of music for health and behavioural outcomes, very few studies using music have been performed in the hospital environment and even fewer on short-stay geriatric units.

Older adults are the fastest-growing group of patients admitted to hospital, and the age-related burden of non-fatal health outcomes is one of the main challenges faced by hospitals. Thus, assessing and addressing the needs of the growing number of geriatric patients is necessary. One of those age-related burdens is related to falls. Falls are highly frequent in geriatric patients, particularly on short-stay geriatric units, with a prevalence of up to 30 %. Falls are associated with increased length of hospital stay, high health-care costs and negative non-fatal health outcomes including multi-morbidities and related disabilities.

Previous research has shown that music may decrease the risk of falls. For example, it was shown that the rhythm of music, combined with physical exercise, can improve measures of gait stability. In older community dwellers, music-based programs have demonstrated that improvement of gait stability decreased the risk of falls. We therefore hypothesized that music listening may decrease the risk of falls of geriatric patients admitted to a short stay unit.

This study aimed to examine the influence of music listening on the risk of falls in patients admitted to a Geriatric Assessment Unit (GAU) by comparing the Morse Fall Scale (MFS) score for patients who attended music listening sessions and in control patients who did not attend these music sessions. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the effect of music listening on the risk of falls in a geriatric unit.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

152

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Quebec
      • Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3T 1M5
        • St. Mary's Hospital Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • first admission to the GAU
  • length of stay between 5 and 31 days

Exclusion Criteria:

  • none

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Music intervention Group
Patients who participated to at least one music session provided by volunteers while being admitted to the geriatric assessment unit. Participation to the music sessions was voluntary.
Other: Music Session
Three to four times a week, volunteer musicians came to the geriatric assessment unit and would provide music sessions (duration of about 60 minutes) to the patients who volunteered to attend.
No Intervention: Control Group
Patients who did not want to participate to the music sessions provided by volunteers while being admitted to the geriatric assessment unit

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in the risk of fall
Time Frame: At baseline (T0) and 4 weeks later (T1)
The Morse Fall Scale (MFS). This is a rapid and simple method to assess the probability that a patient will fall. The total score is out of 125 and includes 6 items: history of previous falls, presence of a secondary diagnosis (i.e. more than one medical diagnosis in the patient's chart), use of an ambulatory aid (none, cane, walker), presence of intravenous therapy, gait and transfers (normal, weak, impaired) and the patient's mental status (oriented towards own ability or not). The score is further divided into 3 risk levels: low risk (less than 25 points), medium risk (25-44 points) and high risk (more than 45 points).
At baseline (T0) and 4 weeks later (T1)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

McGill University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 31, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

May 31, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 13, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 17, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

November 21, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 21, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 17, 2017

Last Verified

November 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SMHC # 14-31

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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