THE CONNECTION SPHERE
Articles
Music Therapy, Live Listening and the Sense of Loneliness: A nursing home study in Las Vegas
written by Hayden Leung August, 2025
Results :
Over the two week span, I was able to document the verbal survey responses from the total participants. There were some inconsistencies in my data regarding the total number of participants. As the participant number fluctuated from the first session and the second session. There were some participants who had participated in the first session that were not present during the second and I had concluded this by utilizing the data from only the participants who had shown up to both of the sessions. Then, I organized the data collected onto a google sheet document and presented a table.
Table 1:
Table 1 presents the individual responses from the 3-scale UCLA survey. Participants were numbed from 1 to 20, and their score from the first session and second session were calculated. The difference between the two scores are presented in percentage. Other factors including age of the participant were accounted for in the second last column. The account for any present mental disability were recorded through binary numbers in which 0 meaning the participant had no mental disability and 1 meaning the participant has a mental disability.
The findings on table 1 provide insight on the improvement of the music session program on their loneliness. The participants that showed an improvement of 30% and greater are: 1, 7, 9, 13, 14, and 16. Out of 20 participants, 6 showed a great improvement in their sense of loneliness, meaning the active music engagement session has greatly impacted the overall self loneliness of the 6 individuals. The participants with a 1-30% improvement in their score include: 3, 8, 10, 17, and 19. Participants that showed an improvement that was greater than 1% but less than 30%, are considered to have benefited from the active music session, but were not shown great improvements. Meaning that the music sessions were not highly effective for those participants. Participants who showed no improvement include: 4, 11, 12, and 15. These participants showed no benefits from the music sessions, meaning other factors may be contributing to the stale growth of their score. Possible factors include, not participating or engaging in the music, or the possession of a disability that limits their ability to improve their sense of loneliness from the music session. For example, out of the 4 participants that showed 0% growth, 2 participants possessed a disability. The participants who showed a negative score growth include: 2, 5, 6, 18, 20. Negative growth from the participants are to be assumed of other factors contributing to this result. It is likely that the cause for the decrease of their score came from factors involving their lives outside of these musical sessions.
Table 2:
Table two provides the average mean score from all of the participants, with the mean difference percentage, age, and mental health limitation included as well. The table shows that the overall sense of loneliness score has improved by 10%, providing positive results. Which suggests that the music sessions have an overall beneficial effect on the participants over the 2 week span.
Discussion:
The results concluded that the overall participants concurred a positive growth in their sense of loneliness over the course of the study, meaning active music listening may be effective in reducing signs of loneliness in those residing in rehabilitation centers. The 10% growth shown in the scores of the 20 participants, highlights the great extent and capability this type of music intervention has on the sense of loneliness. With my methodology utilizing only two music sessions for this study, the 10% change represents a significant improvement and demonstrates the possibility for this intervention to be utilized much more successfully if scaled in a longer term duration.
However, the relayed inconsistent improvements of the results, reveal some drawbacks for this type of intervention. Notably, the trend of the growth amongst the 20 participants is not unanimous and some demonstrated negative growth during the method process. Which incurs that there may be unexplored factors contributing to the inconsistent improvement results. It could be theorized that personal experiences and emotions may have contributed to the halt in some of the participants' ability to improve their loneliness during the study period. Considering how the method of my study varies without much of a consequence to the participants, it can be concluded that the scores of these participants may have been due to situations in their personal lives. A change in the participants' personal lives can most definitely alter their scores and responses to the loneliness survey, which creates a limitation to my methodology of choice.
Particularly, the limitation in question is the short study duration. With my design consisting of a two-week span with only two music sessions provided, it has come to my attention that the participants may not have been able to fully grasp the effects of the active music listening intervention. As two weeks is only a short amount of time, there may be situations in the participants' personal lives that have affected their mood and overall quality of life during that period. Therefore, offering a more extended time period and more quantities of music intervention sessions, could allow for the data to be more comprehensive and accurate. Providing more music sessions and opportunities for verbal interviews, allows us to grasp the participants emotional trajectories over time. For example, this music intervention is targeted to improve the patient's overall sense of loneliness linearly over time. This linear growth showcases more reliability as the participants are revealed to more and more music overtime. However, by having more data points through more music intervention sessions, we are able to grasp when the participants are actually affected by the music sessions or if the participants are going through the personal life experience. With more sessions, we are able to see the overall trends of the growth and spot any spikes or dips in their responses overtime. And with these spotted spikes and dips, we will then be able to tell if the participant is experiencing a situation in their personal life affecting their score, allowing for us to better determine what the music sessions have affected and what it has not. Which is why, future research should prioritize the longevity of this method and induce more quantities of the music intervention sessions. This will allow us to gain new understanding of the extent to which active live listening affects the sense of loneliness amongst those participants. This longer data graph, will provide clarity that is essential in validating the long-term effectiveness of live active music listening sessions.
Moving on, based on the average score improvement percentage of the 20 participants, active live music listening in those residing in rehab centers shows a great extent in alleviating feelings of loneliness, however, this claim cannot be generalized and ruled due to the lack of data from the method. No conclusions can be fully supported or drawn from this study, due to the lack of data points from the short study duration. There are a variety of different factors involving the personal lives of these participants to be able to draw any concrete conclusions. There were present trends revealed in my table, including the implication of a positive reduction in loneliness amongst the participants. These implications can only be further explored in order to create a comprehensive conclusion about the effectiveness of this music intervention. Therefore, making it important for future research to further evaluate this trend shown in my table, and to utilize a more long term study duration in order to create solid conclusions to define the extent of this specific music intervention of the participants.
References
Cheetu, S., Medeiros, M., Winemaker, L., Li, M., Bartel, L., Foster, B., & Mackinnon, C. (2022). Understanding the Effects of Music Care on the Lived Experience of Isolation and
Loneliness in Long-Term Care: A Qualitative Study. Healthcare, 10(3), 457.
https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10030457
Braun Janzen, T., Koshimori, Y., Richard, N. M., & Thaut, M. H. (2022). Rhythm and Music-Based Interventions in Motor Rehabilitation: Current Evidence and
Future Perspectives. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.789467
Dhippayom, T., Saensook, T., Promkhatja, N., Teaktong, T., Chaiyakunapruk, N., & Devine, B. (2022). Comparative effects of music interventions on depression in older adults: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine, 50, 101509.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101509
Kiernan, F., & Davidson, J. W. (2022). How Can Music Engagement Address Loneliness? A Qualitative Study and Thematic Framework in the Context of Australia’s COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010025
Li, D. (2022). Music Therapy in Mental Health and Emotional Diversion of Primary and Secondary School Students. Occupational Therapy International, 2022(8370682), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8370682
Lin, C.-J., Chang, Y.-C., Chang, Y.-H., Hsiao, Y.-H., Lin, H.-H., Liu, S.-J., Chao, C.-A., Wang, H., & Yeh, T.-L. (2019). Music Interventions for Anxiety in Pregnant Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8(11), 1884. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8111884
Sanivarapu, S. (2015). India′s rich musical heritage has a lot to offer to modern psychiatry. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 57(2), 210. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.158201
Thoma, M. V., La Marca, R., Brönnimann, R., Finkel, L., Ehlert, U., & Nater, U. M. (2013). The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response. PLoS ONE, 8(8), e70156. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070156
Whitson, H. E., Thielke, S., Diehr, P., O’Hare, A. M., Chaves, P. H. M., Zakai, N. A., Arnold, A., Chaudhry, S., Ives, D., & Newman, A. B. (2011). Patterns and Predictors of Recovery from Exhaustion in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 59(2), 207–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03238.x
Xue, B., & Wang, J. (2022). Effects of piano music of different tempos on heart rate and autonomic nervous system during the recovery period after high‐intensity exercise. Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/anec.12981
Yokoya, S., Maeno, T., Sakamoto, N., Goto, R., & Maeno, T. (2018). A Brief Survey of Public Knowledge and Stigma Towards Depression. Journal of Clinical Medicine Research, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.14740/jocmr3282w