- Title
- The impact of group singing on health-related quality of life in Parkinson’s disease: a qualitative study
- Creator
- Abell, Romane
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2016
- Description
- Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Clinical & Health Psychology (DClinHlthPsych)
- Description
- Scope: Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic, progressively disabling neurological disorder, comprising both motor symptoms (MS) and non-motor symptoms (NMS). People with PD have reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL; Karlsen, Tandberg, Årsland, & Larsen, 2000; Simpson, Lekwuwa, & Crawford, 2014). To date there is no cure for PD. The primary goal of treatment is to restore or maintain HRQoL through assessment and intervention, while simultaneously managing MS (Fung, 2015). PD predominately affects older adults. Deloitte Access Economics (2015) confirms that in Australia PD is the most common major movement disorder and the second highest prevalence neurodegenerative condition (after Alzheimer’s disease). The estimated prevalence is approximately 70,000 (one in every 340 people) with an economic cost to the country of over $9.9 billion. In 2014, there were 11,900 new cases of PD diagnosed; this rate is expected to grow by 4% per annum over the next 20 years, compared to the general population growth rate of 1%, due to the aging population. Purpose: Group singing is a non-pharmacological, low cost, community-based activity that has been found to improve HRQoL (Clift & Hancox, 2010; Judd & Pooley, 2013) across a variety of populations: mental health (Tavormina, Tavormina, & Nemoianni, 2014), cancer (Gale, Enright, Reagon, Lewis & Deursen, 2012) and neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease (Simons-Stern, Budson & Ally, 2010), dementia (Osman, Tischler & Schneider, 2014) and stroke (Tamplin, Baker, Jones, Way, & Lee, 2013; Tomaino, 2012). The aim of this study was to explore the effects of group singing on HRQoL for people diagnosed with PD. Methodology: Eleven participants (mean age 70.6 years) with a formal diagnosis of PD were recruited from an existing community singing group specifically created for people with PD, their carers and family members. Participants presented with mild to moderate severity of MS and disability (Hoehn and Yahr stage (frequency): level I (6), level II (3) and level III (2)) and moderate to very severe NMS burden (NMSB; (frequency): moderate (4), severe (5) and very severe (2)) and low to significantly impacted HRQoL (Parkinson Disease Questionnaire-39 scores ranged from 6.93 to 43.59). Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA; Smith, 1996), a qualitative methodology well established in the field of health psychology (Brocki & Wearden, 2006), informed the data collection and analysis. To ensure research rigour, the recommendations of the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Studies (COREQ; Tong, Sainsbury & Craig, 2007) were incorporated into the research design. Participants’ perceptions of the effect of group singing on their HRQoL were captured in a semi-structured interview designed for this research. Results: All participants reported improved wellbeing since attending the choir and a desire to recommend the singing group to others with PD. The results of the IPA analysis revealed six themes that characterised the effects of group singing: physical, mood, cognitive functioning, social connectedness, ‘flow-on’ effects, and sense-of-self. All participants reported positive effects across at least four of these themes. Three participants reported a negative effect in at least one theme (physical, mood or sense-of-self). The most common sub-themes reported by participants were related to social connectedness, with all participants reporting camaraderie and new friendships as important aspects of attending the choir. Other sub-themes, identified by the majority of participants, included improved voice quality, raised energy levels, PD-specific choir, enhanced mood, increased self-confidence and greater control over day-to-day activities. Three factors were identified as important in the success of the choir: the Choir Maestro, PD-carer support group, and a PD-specific choir. General conclusions and implications: This study is unique for the following reasons. It is the only study to use a qualitative methodology to examine group singing and HRQoL in participants regularly attending a choir specifically established for people with PD, their carers and family members. It is the only study to report on the cognitive benefits of group singing in a PD specific choir, and the only study to report the duration of the effects across the domains of physical (body and voice), mood and cognitive functioning. Furthermore, this research has revealed both positive and negative effects of group singing, whereas previous studies have not reported on the latter in a PD specific choir. Participants reported multiple benefits from engagement in group singing that counteracted many of the negative effects of PD, suggesting that group singing has the ability to ‘give back’ some of what PD ‘takes away’.
- Subject
- Parkinson’s disease; group singing; choir; health-related quality of life; quality of life; IPA; Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis; COREQ; thesis by publication
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1312912
- Identifier
- uon:22482
- Rights
- Copyright 2016 Romane Abell
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Abstract | 472 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Thesis | 5 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |