Effect of choir activity in the rehabilitation of aphasia: a blind, randomised, controlled pilot study

ABSTRACTBackground: Aphasia challenges the functional communication abilities that people use for everyday social interaction. People with non-fluent aphasia struggle to express themselves when speaking, yet they have been shown to better pronounce words when singing familiar songs or novel songs in a choral context. Choral singing and familiar songs are at the core of choir practice, a recreational activity that has long been offered in aphasic associations. Beneficial effects of this activity have been suggested for aphasia rehabilitation but have never been tested in a randomised controlled trial (RCT).Aim: Our study addressed whether the process of such a study is feasible and aimed to provide the first controlled trial of the effects of choir practice on aphasia rehabilitation.Methods: We piloted a three armed-prospective, randomised, parallel-group, open-label, blinded end point (PROBE) pragmatic study with a 1:1:1 allocation ratio and stratification for aphasia severity. The primary outcome was imp...