Effects of Music Therapy on the Care Burden of In-Home Caregivers and Physiological Parameters of Their In-Home Dementia Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to explore the effects of classical Turkish music therapy on both the caregiver burden and physiological parameters of patients with dementia. METHODS: The study was a randomized controlled trial. It was conducted with dementia patients (n = 75) and their caregivers who were registered at in-home care services of the General Secretariat of the Association of Public Hospitals in Ordu. The study sample consisted of 30 control and 30 music group patients and their caregivers who satisfied the inclusion criteria for the study conducted between April 2015 and April 2016. The primary outcome of the study was to measure the care burden of in-home caregivers, and the secondary outcome was to measure physiological parameters, including systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate in patients with dementia. RESULTS: The mean scores of the post-test caregiver burden in the music group were found to be significantly lower than those of the control group (t = -4.478, p = 0.001). The differences in the post-test systolic and diastolic blood pressures between the patient groups were found to be statistically significant (t = -4.603, p = 0.001; t = -2.656, p = 0.010). CONCLUSIONS: Classical Turkish music intervention in in-home dementia patients decreased the care burden of caregivers and the patients' blood pressures were brought under control. In parallel with these results, it is recommended that more studies to reveal the effects of classical Turkish music on care burden should be conducted.