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 Researchers had primarily hoped to see choir participation yield
improvements in elderly people's thinking skills and physical
fitness, but that didn't happen. They did, however, see improvements
in loneliness and interest in life among seniors in the singing
groups.
The study was conducted at 12 senior centers serving racially and
ethnically diverse communities in and around San Francisco. Half of
the centers were randomly selected for the choir program; the others
served as a control group.
Ultimately, 208 people participated in the choirs and 182 in the
control group. None of them had been singing regularly with other
groups.
Overall, the average age was 71, and three-quarters of participants
were women. Two-thirds reported being from minority racial or ethnic
backgrounds. Forty-one percent had been born outside the U.S., 20
percent reported financial hardship, 25 percent reported fair or
poor health and 60 percent had at least two chronic medical
conditions.
Roughly one in four participants had depression, but no one who
enrolled in the study had any cognitive problems, the authors report
in the journal Innovation in Aging.
More than half of the patients in the choir group (55 percent) had
not previously sung in a choir as an adult, and more than half (56
percent) rated their musical ability as poor or fair.
Each of the choirs met 23 times over the course of six months.
Professional choir conductors led the sessions, which also included
physical activities such as walking to different parts of the room
to sing. More than 90 percent of people in both groups stayed in the
study for the whole six months.
At the end, there were no significant differences between the groups
in the primary outcome measures of the study: scores on tests of
cognitive function, lower body strength and overall psychosocial
health.
There were, however, significant improvements in two components of
the psychosocial evaluation among choir participants. People in this
group were feeling less lonely, and they were more interested in
life - that is, their responses to survey questions indicated they
were more interested in things, got more things done, were doing
more interesting things and felt more motivated.
Seniors in the control group, meanwhile, did not see a large change
in their scores for loneliness at the end of the six months, and
their interest in life declined slightly.
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"Because music (and singing) is integral to most cultures and are
relatively easy and low-cost to deliver in community settings,
community choirs . . . have the potential to improve the well-being
of a large number of older adults," study leader Julene Johnson of
the University of California, San Francisco told Reuters Health by
email.
Older adults who feel lonely are more likely to be at risk of
declining motor functions, poor physical wellbeing and even death,
studies have shown.
Johnson's study adds to older research showing that music may give
adults the opportunity to remain active and engaged.
Choirs can also be tailored according to the culture of the
communities, making them accessible to diverse populations, she and
her colleagues point out, and are a relatively cheap tool for
improving health outcomes.
"Increasing evidence suggests that loneliness is linked to
broad-based physical and psychological morbidity, and it may reduce
longevity," said Dawn Mackey of Simon Fraser University in
Vancouver, Canada, who was not involved in the study.
"It's encouraging that both arts-based and physical-activity based
interventions may improve mental well-being for older adults and
help them add quality to years," she said via email.
Healthcare costs increased across both the groups during the study
period, although the increase was smaller in the intervention group.
It remains to be seen whether healthcare costs over the long term
could be saved by helping adults feel less lonely.
"It is certainly possible that reducing feelings of loneliness and
increasing interest in life may eventually save healthcare costs in
the long term, but we have to test that hypothesis," Johnson said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2rmcOEZ Innovation in Aging, online November
11, 2018.
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