| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 高齡者教育研究所 === 100 === This research is to explore the prime application of music therapy on improving the elderly with dementia. The purpose is twofold:
1. Assess the effectiveness of music therapy on the elderly entire basic
activities of daily living (BADL).
2.Evaluate the improvement of those elderly performance based on the ten
variables of Barthel index.
Twenty-two seniors with dementia of severity from mild to moderate scale were purposively selected from Veteran Home in the southern Taiwan. Half of them were randomly selected to be in the treatment group, receiving 13 sessions of music therapy based on percussion instruments during the 6.5 weeks. The eleven remaining seniors in the control group received no instrumental play but daily care was retained regularly. Our approach is based on quasi-experiment with pre- and post-test design. Quantitative assessment were based on the mini–mental state examination (MMSE) and Barthel index. Additionally, qualitative assessment were based on the two caregivers who were interviewed at the end of 13 sessions by us on their observations in the treatment group. Descriptive statistics and statistical inference like Student's t-test were used in our analysis. The experimental results suggested the following:
1.The measurement of those senior's basic activities of daily living showed
significant improvement after the music therapy.
2.Four out of the ten Barthel BADL index variables clearly showed improvements , which are toilet use , walking , going upstairs with auxiliary tools , and body movement.
Based on the analysis of our experiment, it is discovered that music therapy has practical applications and profound impacts on those demented seniors. It is recommended that music therapy be a consideration of deployment in more eldercare facilities; it is hoped that this research can bring awareness for those undertaking geriatrics, medicine, and health care of our government on the invaluable application of music therapy.
keywords: Music Therapy, the elderly with Dementia, Basic Activities of Daily Living
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