Abstract
BackgroundThe growth in numbers of older people represents a considerable cost to health and social care services in the United Kingdom. There is an acknowledged need to address issues of social exclusion and both the physical and mental health of this age group. In recent years there has been much interest in the potential contribution of the arts to the health of communities and individuals. There is some evidence that participative singing may be of benefit to older people, however studies to date are limited in number and have lacked rigour. There is therefore a need to build on this knowledge base to provide more quantifiable evidence of both effectiveness and cost effectiveness of singing as a health intervention for this population group.MethodsThe proposed study is a pragmatic randomised controlled trial with two parallel arms. The primary hypothesis is that singing groups for older people improve both physical and mental aspects of quality of life when compared to usual activities. Potential participants will be volunteers over 60 years living in the community and recruited through publicity. Eligible and consenting participants will be randomized to either a singing group or a control group. Singing groups will take part in a twelve week planned programme of singing and control groups will continue with usual activities. The primary outcome measure will be the York SF-12, a health related quality of life measure which will be administered at baseline, three and six months after baseline. The study will evaluate both effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.DiscussionThis study proposes to add to the existing body of evidence on the value of singing for older people by using a rigorous methodological design, which includes a power calculation, a standardised intervention and assessment of cost-effectiveness. It should be regarded as a stage in a progressive programme of studies in this area. If group singing is found to be effective and cost-effective it may offer an alternative means to maintaining the health of people in later life.Trial RegistrationISRCTN62404401
Highlights
The growth in numbers of older people represents a considerable cost to health and social care services in the United Kingdom
The growth of the older population in the UK is substantial and the social care and health needs of older people represent a considerable cost to health and social care services [1]
The social utility of the arts has been promoted by the national Arts Councils, and both DCMS and DH have supported research to explore the contribution of the arts in the field of mental health [10]
Summary
The study is a pragmatic randomised controlled trial with two parallel arms. The study has been granted ethical approval by Surrey Research Ethics Committee REC ref: 10/H1109/5 and complies with the Helsinki Declaration. Using data from quasi-experimental and observational studies we hypothesise that a minimally important difference in health related quality of life between the intervention group and control groups is in the order of 5 points on the York SF-12, equivalent to a medium effect size difference of 0.5 To detect this difference using a twotailed test, alpha of 0.05 and power at 80% requires 63 participants in each of the two arms, a total of 126. The costs of providing singing groups will be based on information gathered regarding participant contacts (all intervention contacts the participants receive, including the time and resources used to deliver the song groups which the participants attended) throughout the study. Bootstrapping will be conducted to explore the sensitivity and stability of derived estimates and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios and costacceptability curves presented
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
