The Effects of Group Music Therapy on the Emotional Health of Residents in Long-Term Care Facilities: A Pilot Study

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Group Music Therapy: This intervention consists of a structured 6-week group music therapy program designed for residents of a long-term care facility. Participants attend one 60-minute session per week, for a total of six sessions. Sessions are conducted in small groups (approximately 10 participants per group) and are led by a trained music therapist with support from nursing staff. The intervention follows an active music therapy approach and includes four core components: (1) listening to culturally familiar music to evoke emotional resonance; (2) interactive instrument play using simple percussion instruments to promote engagement and coordination; (3) group singing and vocal expression to facilitate emotional expression and social bonding; and (4) brief group sharing discussions to encourage reflection and interpersonal connection. The program is progressively structured to enhance emotional engagement and social interaction in a supportive environment. In addition to standard psychosocial outcome

Study summary

The goal of this pilot study is to learn whether group music therapy improves the emotional health of residents living in long-term care facilities. It will also examine the feasibility of integrating an artificial intelligence (AI)-based emotion recognition model into routine psychosocial interventions.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does group music therapy improve positive affect and reduce negative affect, depression, and loneliness among long-term care residents? Are AI-based facial emotion recognition results consistent with residents' self-reported emotional assessments?

Researchers will use a one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design to evaluate changes before and after a 6-week group music therapy program. The study will also compare subjective questionnaire results with objective facial emotion recognition outputs generated by the PaLI Gemma 2 multimodal model.

Participants will:

Attend one 60-minute group music therapy session per week for 6 weeks Complete emotional health questionnaires before the first session and after the sixth session Be recorded during sessions using a non-invasive camera system for facial emotion analysis Have their questionnaire results compared with AI-based emotion recognition outputs to evaluate consistency and feasibility

This pilot study will provide preliminary evidence regarding both the psychological benefits of group music therapy and the feasibility of applying AI-supported multimodal emotion assessment in long-term care settings.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Change in Positive Affect Score on the I-PANAS-SF — Baseline, Week 6
  Assessed using the short form of the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (I-PANAS-SF). The positive affect subscale consists of 5 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1=never, 5=always). Total subscale scores range from 5 to 25, with higher scores indicating stronger positive emotional intensity.
• Change in Negative Affect Score on the I-PANAS-SF — Baseline, Week 6
  Assessed using the short form of the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (I-PANAS-SF). The negative affect subscale consists of 5 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1=never, 5=always). Total subscale scores range from 5 to 25, with higher scores indicating stronger negative emotional intensity.

Trial sites (1)

Other trials for the same condition