Open Journal of Nursing, 2013, 3, 453-459 OJN
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojn.2013.36061 Published Online October 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojn/)
The effect of individualized music on agitation for
home-dwelling persons with dementia
Heeok Park
Keimyung University College of Nursing, Daegu, South Korea
Email: hopark@kmu.ac.kr
Received 15 August 2013; revised 28 October 2013; accepted 30 October 2013
Copyright © 2013 Heeok Park. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the
effect of individualized music on agitation for home-
dwelling patients with dementia. Method: One group
pre-post test was used for research design and a total
of 26 subjects participated in this study. Individual-
ized music intervention was subjects’ listening to
their preferred music for 30 minutes prior to peak
agitation time twice a week for a total of four sessions.
The subject’s agitation levels were measured for three
different points: thirty minutes prior to listening to
music, 30 minutes while listening to the music, and
after listening to the music throughout the 4 sessions.
To measure the agitation level, the modified Cohen-
Mansfield Agitation Inventory was used. A Paired t-
test was used for data analysis. Results: Most subjects
were female (73.1%), Caucasian (92.4%), Protestant
(50%), and independent activity (53.8%). The mean
of the subjects’ MMSE scores was 8.08 (8.17). The
most favorite music types included country/western
music (31.0%), religious music (26.9%), and big band
(26.9%). Agitation level decreased while listening to
the music compared to the baseline (t = 3.70, p < .001).
Conclusion: The findings of this study would provide
meaningful data to develop an individualized music
intervention protocol to control agitation for home-
dwelling patients with dementia.
Keywords: Music; Agitation; Dementia
1. INTRODUCTION
Persons with dementia experience many problems such
as cognitive decline, behavioral problems, and being a
burden on their caregivers [1,2]. Among these problems,
behavioral problems have been an important issue be-
cause they increase the use of chemical limitations and
decrease the clients’ quality of life [3,4]. Agitation is a
major part of the behavioral problems, and it increases
the use of hospital care and the burden on caregivers [5].
Agitation is defined as “an inappropriate verbal, vocal,
or motor activity that is not explained by needs or confu-
sion per se” [6]. Thirty to fifty persons with dementia
staying at nursing care facilities showed agitation and
over fifty percent of community-dwelling persons with
dementia showed agitation [7,8], and the most frequent
agitation included general restlessness, constant unwar-
ranted requests for attention, complaining, and negativ-
ism [6]. Agitation occurred depending on the time of day.
Aggressive behaviors were shown often during lunch and
in the evening. Most repetitious mannerisms peaked in
the late morning and pacing peaked during the early af-
ternoon.
Many factors such as gender, personality, activities,
social interactions, and environments are significantly
related to agitation. Female gender was a predictor of
non-verbally aggressive behaviors [9] and extroverted
residents were significantly less agitated when there was
a low level of social interaction compared with a high
level [10]. More physically inactive persons with demen-
tia showed more agitation [11]. Persons showing aggres-
sive behaviors and verbally agitated behaviors had no
intimate social networks, while those agitated behaviors
were physically non-aggressive had social networks that
were neutral in intimacy [12]. Agitation is also correlated
with the physical environment such as light levels, tactile
stimulation, homelike accouterments, the cleanliness of
public areas, maintenance, kitchen availability, and staff
treatment of residents [13].
To control agitation, medications are often necessary.
The medications include antipsychotics, antidepressants,
benzodiazepine, busprion, and anticonvulsants, but they
bring undesirable effects such as extrapyramidal symp-
toms, hypotension, parkinsonism, and a higher risk of
death in the acute care setting [14,15]. Because of these
limitations of medications, non-pharmacological inter-
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H. Park / Open Journal of Nursing 3 (2013) 453-459
454
ventions need to be combined to control agitation. The
non-pharmacological interventions include environment-
al therapy, aroma therapy, occupational therapy, music
intervention, indoor gardening, acupressure, and simple
pleasure interventions [16-19]. Among these intervene-
tions, music intervention has been offered because it is
relatively easy to provide and non-invasive to persons.
Many previous studies have reported the positive ef-
fects of music intervention on agitation in persons with
dementia [18,20,21], but the most studies were limited to
offer music intervention with group basis and provide
music to nursing homes clients. Gerdner (2005) offered
individualized music to control agitation in persons with
dementia to consider the peak agitation time and short
attention span in each client [22]. The individualized
music is defined as “music selected on an individual ba-
sis according to a verbalized personal preference” [20].
Park and Specht (2009) tested Gerdner (2000)’s evi-
dence-based protocol of individualized music for home-
dwelling persons with dementia because there was no
music intervention study to control agitation for home-
dwelling persons with dementia even though over fifty
percent of community-dwelling persons with dementia
show agitation [7,20,23], but the study was limited to a
pilot study with small sample size. Therefore, there is a
need to test the effect of individualized music on agita-
tion for home-dwelling persons with dementia using a
reasonable sample size. The purpose of this study is to
test the effects of individualized music on agitation for
home-dwelling persons with dementia. The following
hypotheses were tested in this study:
Hypothesis 1: Persons with dementia will experience
lower agitation scores while listening to music than prior
to listening to the music.
Hypothesis 2: Persons with dementia will experience
lower agitation scores while listening to music than after
listening to the music.
Hypothesis 3: Persons with dementia will experience
lower agitation scores after listening to music than prior
to listening to the music.
The research protocol, a consent form, and potential
risks and benefits were reviewed and approved by the
University Human Subjects Institutional Review Board.
2. METHOD
2.1. Design
One-group pretest-posttest design was used. A non-
probability convenience sample was used. Persons with
dementia were recruited from the Alzheimer’s Associa-
tion, the Alzheimer’s project, and the Administration on
Aging in Iowa and Florida, USA. A total of twenty-six
persons with dementia from Iowa and Florida had par-
ticipated in this study.
2.2. Sample Selection
The sample size was determined by Power calculation
based on Cohen’s effect-size formulas using power .80
and effect size 0.50 [24]. Based on the calculation, 26
subjects had completed this study. Persons with dementia
who met the following inclusion criteria were included in
this study: 1) diagnosed with dementia; 2) scoring under
25 on the MMSE; 3) living at home or in an assisted liv-
ing facility; 4) exhibiting agitation at least one time a
week; 5) able to hear a normal speaking voice at a dis-
tance of 1.5 feet; 6) able to express personal music pref-
erence for a person or a family member; and 7) able to
get consent from a person or a family member. Persons
with psychiatric disease or severe pain were excluded for
enrollment in the study.
2.3. Procedure
Patients with dementia were recruited from the Alz-
heimer’s Association, the Alzheimer’s project, and the
Administration on Aging in Iowa and Florida. Directors
from the organizations were contacted by the PI, and the
content of this study was presented to the directors. The
directors and the PI had distributed the invitation letter to
this study to the patients with dementia using the services
of the organizations and families. When the patients with
dementia and families showed interests to participate in
this study, the PI had visited their homes to present
whole procedure of this study and strengths and weak-
ness of this study one more time. After the presentation,
if persons with dementia and families agreed to partici-
pate in the study, an informed consent form was ob-
tained.
After the consent to participate, the subjects’ demo-
graphic data, cognitive level, peak agitation time, and
subjects’ preferred music were assessed at baseline. Two
music CDs were chosen for individualized music inter-
vention based on the findings of the Assessment of Per-
sonal Music Preference (APMP) [25]. The CDs were
played before music intervention started to confirm that
the persons liked the music. If so, the two music CDs
were selected for the music intervention.
Music intervention time was planned for 30 minutes
prior to peak agitation time and it was offered twice a
week for a total of four sessions. The two days were usu-
ally designated as Tuesday or Friday, but they were in-
terchangeable by another day depending on the subjects’
schedule. If subjects wanted to listen to the music more
than twice a week, it was allowed. Music intervention
was limited to 30 minutes because of the limited atten-
tion span in persons with dementia [26]. Music interven-
tion was provided for 30 minutes prior to peak agitation
time because it was previously presented to be effective
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H. Park / Open Journal of Nursing 3 (2013) 453-459 455
in other studies [18,20].
The subjects’ families used a CD player to play the
subjects’ preferred music, but the research assistants did
if families were not available. If the subjects had their
own music CD players at home, they used the CD play-
ers, but if not, a new music CD player was offered to the
subjects by the PI. The subjects listened to their preferred
music individually at home and the music was played
any room where the people preferred such as a living
room or a private room. Agitation levels were measured
for 90 minutes throughout the three different times: 1) 30
minutes prior to listening to music; 2) 30 minutes with
the music; and 3) 30 minutes after withdrawal of the mu-
sic.
2.4. Instruments
The demographic data form included age, gender, race,
marital status, religion, education level, medical history,
pain control medications, and activity level.
2.4.1. Ass essment of Personal Music Preference:
Music Preference
The patients’ music preferences were assessed using the
Assessment of Personal Music Preference (APMP) at
baseline [25]. The APMP is designed to obtain specific
information regarding the subject’s musical preference at
baseline. It includes the questions about preferences of
genre, performers, music albums, and music activities.
Based on the findings of the APMP, two music CDs
were determined to meet their music preference and of-
fered to persons.
2.4.2. Modified Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory:
Peak Agitation Time
To determine the patients’ peak agitation time, Cohen-
Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) was modified [6].
The original CMAI was designed to assess the frequency
of agitated behaviors, and include 29 behaviors on a
scale of 1 (no agitation) to 7 points (several times per
hour). The modified CMAI remained the 29 behaviors
from the original CMAI, but family members and re-
search assistants were asked to write down the times that
they had noticed the agitation for seven consecutive days.
Based on the findings of the modified CMAI, the most
common time of agitation manifestation was determined
as the peak agitation time. For example, if a subject
showed agitation at 9 a. m., 11 a. m., 11 p. m. on Mon-
day, 11 a. m. on Tuesday, 9 a. m., 11 a. m. on Thursday,
and 11 p. m. on Saturday, the patients’ peak agitation
time was determined as 11 a. m. The validity of the
original CMAI ranged from 0.64 to 0.95, and the reli-
ability of the CMAI in the three units has ranged 0.92 (n
= 16), 0.92 (n = 23), and 0.88 (n = 31) [12,27].
2.4.3. Modified Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory:
Agitation Level
The CMAI was also modified to measure agitation level.
The modified CMAI to measure agitation level retained
the 29 behaviors from the original CMAI, but with a
scale of 0 (none) to 3 (severe). When the caregivers no-
ticed agitated behaviors on the list of the modified CMAI,
the severity of agitation were checked. The total of pos-
sible scores of the modified CMAI ranged 0 to 87. Agi-
tation levels were measured for: 1) 30 minutes before
listening to music; 2) 30 minutes while listening to the
music; and 3) 30 minutes after listening to the music.
2.5. Ethical Approval
The study was approved by University IRB. Prior to en-
rolment, each participant received oral and written pres-
entation about the aim and procedure of the study, and it
was emphasized that participation was voluntary. All
participants were informed about procedures for ensuring
anonymity and confidentiality.
2.6. Analysis
Descriptive statistics were used to describe subjects’
demographical characteristics. The nonparametric Wil-
coxon signed ranks test was used to answer the three
hypotheses.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Subjects’ Characteristics
A total of twenty-six subjects had completed this study.
The subjects’ characteristics were presented in Table 1.
The mean of the subjects’ age was 82.19 (7.80%). Most
subjects were female (73.1%), Caucasian (92.4%), Prot-
estant (50.0%), married (50.0%) and independent (53.8%).
The most favorite music types of the subjects included
country/western music (31.0%), spiritual/religious music
(26.9%), and big band/swing (26.9%). Their most favor-
ite musicians Elvis Presley (15.4%) following, Frank
Sinatra (11.5%), Loretta Lynn (7.7%), Glen Miler (7.7%),
and Jony Cash (7.7%). The most common peak agitation
times of the subjects were 2 p. m. (15.4%) and 4 p. m.
(15.4%).
3.2. Hypotheses Findings
The subjects’ agitation scores at the three different times
through 4 sessions are displayed in Table 2 and a
graphic display is presented in Figure 1. Agitation level
while listening to the music reduced through all 4 ses-
sions compared to the baseline but the agitation level
increased back when the music was removed (Table 3).
Hypothesis 1: Subject’s agitation levels while listening
to 30 minutes of music were significantly lower than
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H. Park / Open Journal of Nursing 3 (2013) 453-459
456
Table 1. Subjects’ characteristics (N = 26).
Characteristics Categories N (%)Q (MR)
Age 84 (80)
Gender Male 7 (26.9)
Female 19 (73.1)
Race Caucasian 24 (92.4)
Asian American 1 (3.8)
African American 1 (3.8)
Education Middle-High school 13 (50.0)
Diploma-Graduate 13 (50.0)
Religion Protestant 13 (50.0)
Catholic 3 (11.5)
Others 8 (31.0)
None 2 (7.5)
Marital status Married 13 (50.0)
Widowed 12 (46.2)
Divorced 1 (3.8)
Activity level Independent 14 (53.8)
Partially dependent 10 (38.5)
Totally dependent 2 (7.7)
MMSE 7 (14.5)
Types of favorite songs Country and Western 8 (31.0)
Spiritual/Religious 7 (26.9)
Big Band/Swing 7 (26.9)
Others 4 (15.2)
Preferred album Elvis Presley 4 (15.4)
Frank Sinatra 3 (11.5)
Loretta Lynn 2 (7.7)
Glen Miler 2 (7.7)
Jony Cash 2 (7.7)
Others 13 (50.0)
Peak agitation time 2pm 4 (15.4)
4pm 4 (15.4)
10am 3 (11.5)
11am 3 (11.5)
1:30pm 3 (11.5)
Others
9 (34.7)
before listening to the music (Z = 3.070, p = .002).
Therefore, hypothesis one was supported.
Hypothesis 2: Subjects’ agitation levels while listening
to music were not significantly lower than after listening
to the music (Z = 0.878, p = .380). Therefore, hypothe-
sis two was not supported.
Hypothesis 3: Subjects’ agitation levels after listening
to music were significantly lower than before listening to
the music (Z = 2.139, p = .032). Therefore, hypothesis
Table 2. The mean of agitation scores by the sessions (N = 26).
Agitation for 30
minutes prior to
music intervention
Agitation for 30
minutes with music
intervention
Agitation for 30
minutes after music
intervention
Sessions
Q (MR) Q (MR) Q (MR)
1 2 (8.5) 0 (7.5) 1 (6.0)
2 1 (4.0) 0 (3.5) 1 (9.0)
3 1 (9.0) 0 (10.5) 1 (10.5)
4 1 (5.0) 0 (2.5) 1 (3.5)
Total 1 (9.0) 0 (10.5) 1 (10.5)
Table 3. Differences of agitation across the three different
times (N = 26).
Before
Music*
With
Music**
After
Music***
Agitation
Q (MR)Q (MR) Q (MR)
Z p
Hypothesis 11 (9.0) 0 (10.5) 3.070 .002
Hypothesis 2 0 (10.5) 1 (10.5) 0.878 .380
Hypothesis 31 (9.0) 1 (10.5) 2.139 .032
*Agitation for 30 minutes prior to music intervention. **Agitation for 30
minutes with music intervention. ***Agitation for 30 minutes after music
intervention.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Before MusicWith MusicAfter Music
Session1
Session2
Session3
Session4
Figure 1. The change of agitation scores by the sessions across
the three different times (N = 26).
three was supported.
4. DISCUSSION
The current study showed that individualized music re-
duced agitation in patients with dementia living at home
even after the music removed and the finding was con-
sistent with other music intervention studies conducted at
nursing care facilities, group basis, and meal time or
nursing time in terms of agitation reduced while the
presence of music [21,28,29]. Jennings and Vance (2002)
provided music therapy using singing familiar songs and
playing rudimentary instrument for 30 minutes to 16
persons with dementia using an adult day care center to
control agitation and showed decreased agitation level
with music compared to baseline. Richeson and Neill
(2004) offered therapeutic recreation music intervention
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H. Park / Open Journal of Nursing 3 (2013) 453-459 457
using quiet music to control agitation at meal time to 27
persons with dementia staying at nursing homes and re-
ported significantly decreased agitation while playing
music. Hicks-Moore (2005) played relaxing music to
control agitation for 33 persons with dementia using a
special care unit at meal time and the total number of
agitation in this study decreased during music condition.
Even though the types of music and the settings the sub-
jects stayed were different in the previous studies, the
findings of the studies were similar in that agitation re-
duced with music in patients with dementia.
The reduced agitation with the presence of music in
this study was also consistent with other music inter-
vention studies performed prior to peak agitation time
with individual basis but nursing care facilities [18,20].
Gerdner (2000) provided individualized music to com-
pare the effect of individualized music on agitation to
classic music to 39 persons with dementia using long
term care facilities for 30 minutes prior to peak agitation
time and significantly reduced agitation was observed
with individualized music compared to classic music in
her study. Ragneskog et al. (2001) played an individual-
ized music to control agitation for 45 minutes prior to
peak agitation time for 4 persons staying at nursing
homes and presented two persons of them became
calmer during the individualized music sessions.
The findings of this current study was similar with
Park and Specht (2009)’s pilot study in terms of that agi-
tation was controlled by music provided for 30 minutes,
prior to peak agitation time, individual basis, and at
home setting and the reduced agitation was remained
even after the withdrawal of the music even though the
total period of participation to the music intervention was
different in both studies [23]. The current study offered
music interventions for a total of 4 sessions and the result
of this study showed the continuous effect of music on
agitation as time goes by. Even four sessions of music
interventions controlled agitation, but if more regular and
continuous music interventions could be provided and
tested for home-dwelling patients with dementia, it
would be more helpful to develop an individualized mu-
sic intervention protocol for home-dwelling patients with
dementia.
The current study was offered for home-dwelling per-
sons with dementia and the home dwelling persons in-
clude the persons living at their own homes but also
staying at assisted living facilities. In this study, com-
paring the effect of music intervention on agitation be-
tween home and assisted living facility was not tested,
but the different effect of music on agitation could be
anticipated when considered subjects’ living environ-
ments at home are not similar with assisted living facility.
Thus, for the further studies, measuring the effect of mu-
sic intervention on agitation depending on the different
settings might be meaningful to develop the music inter-
vention protocol to meet client’s music needs.
Music was basically offered two times a week (Tues-
day/Friday), but if subjects want to listen to the music
while non-music intervention days, it was allowed. Dur-
ing the days, the primary caregivers of the subjects at
home were inclined to play the caregivers’ preferred mu-
sic not subjects’ one according to the caregivers’ music
tastes. Even though the subjects want to listen to their
preferred music, it is not easy for them to express the
needs. Assessing the music preferences for home-
dwelling patients with dementia and playing their pre-
ferred music need to be considered to control agitation
and increase quality of life.
The current study showed that listening to 30 minutes
of patients’ preferred music reduced agitation but the
study has a couple of limitations. The study was con-
ducted at 2 states so that it was difficult to generalize to
other places. In addition, the subjects of this study were
home-dwelling patients with dementia and the patients
have limited information on their general and disease
characteristics compared to the hospital patients so that it
was difficult to collect the patients’ information and also
the patients and families were not familiar to their health
information. For the further studies with home-dwelling
patients with dementia, there is a need to utilize the pa-
tients’ hospital data to aware of patients’ characteristics
related to disease and to meet the patients’ needs in depth
if available. Also, the study was conducted to test the
effect of individualized music on agitation without the
comparison group. Actually, in this study it was difficult
to recruit the home-dwelling patients for the control
group because they want the researchers to visit and offer
something for them. For the further studies with home-
dwelling patients with dementia, providing any kind of
intervention to compare with the effect of music for the
control group is suggested. Even though the current
study has some limitations, the study is meaningful in
terms of that it is the first study to provide individualized
music to control agitation for home-dwelling patients
with dementia with the reasonable sample size.
5. CONCLUSION
The current study showed that individualized music in-
tervention controlled agitation for home-dwelling pa-
tients with dementia and the findings were consistent
with the results of previous studies. It provides meaning
information in terms of that an individualized music in-
tervention was provided for home-dwelling patients with
dementia to control agitation with the reasonable sample
size. It would also suggest meaningful data to develop a
music intervention protocol for home-dwelling patients
with dementia and families. Based on the findings of this
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. OPEN ACCESS
H. Park / Open Journal of Nursing 3 (2013) 453-459
458
study, developing an individualized music intervention
protocol to control agitation for home-dwelling patients
with dementia and testing the effect of music with the
comparison group needs to be conducted. Also, testing
the effect of the individualized music to control agitation
in different settings is suggested for the further studies.
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Bisa Research Grant of Keimyung
University in College of Nursing.
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