# Choir Mitigates Distress for Caregivers of Those With Dementia: The Voices in Motion Project

## TL;DR

A choir program helped reduce stress in caregivers of people with dementia, with benefits seen during active participation but some stress return after a break.

## Contribution

This study introduces a novel dyadic choral intervention and an ABA design to evaluate its impact on caregiver distress over time.

## Key findings

- Caregiver distress significantly declined during the first choral season.
- Distress rebounded after a summer break but began to decline again upon resuming the choir.
- The study provides a new methodological approach for evaluating music-based interventions.

## Abstract

Music-based interventions show promise for attenuating caregiver distress (CD) in informal dementia caregivers; however, research on comparable dyadic interventions is limited. This study aimed to provide a novel evaluation of whether a dyadic choral intervention could facilitate reductions in CD across 2 choral seasons. 30 caregiving dyads participated in a dementia choir across 2 ∼3.5-month choral seasons separated by a ∼4-month summer break: a naturalistic ABA design. Repeated assessment of the Zarit Burden Interview yielded up to 7 assessments of CD across the 2 choral seasons. Results showed that CD significantly declined across a participant’s first choral season, significantly rebounded to new highs upon returning from a summer break, and began to decline again; though, this latter trajectory was not significant. These results highlight the effectiveness of dyadic, music-based interventions for attenuating CD in dementia caregivers, and provides a novel methodological paradigm for use in future research.