Reminiscent music therapy combined with robot-assisted rehabilitation for elderly stroke patients: a pilot study.
Qian Liu, Li Liu, Zuoyan Liu and 4 others
PMID 38291426WHAT IT FOUND
Adding reminiscent music to robot therapy improved self-efficacy and positive emotions more than robot therapy or usual care alone.
However, the primary outcome of daily living activities showed no significant difference between the three groups. All groups improved from their own baselines.
Key findings
01The primary outcome, activities of daily living, showed no significant difference between the three groups after intervention, despite improvements within each group.
02The group receiving music plus robot therapy had significantly higher scores for self-management effectiveness, total rehabilitation self-efficacy, and positive emotion compared to both the robot-only and usual-care groups.
03Upper limb function and self-esteem improved significantly within all three groups from baseline, but there were no statistically significant differences between the groups for these outcomes after the intervention.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study was a pilot with a very small sample size of 30 participants, which limits the certainty of the findings. The control group (usual care) was not time-matched and had lower intensity than the intervention groups, making it difficult to separate the effect of the additional therapy time from the specific components. The study did not assess long-term effects because it only measured outcomes immediately after the three-week intervention period. Six participants were excluded or dropped out during the trial, reducing the initial recruited number from 36 to 30.
Declared interests
The study was funded by West China Hospital, Sichuan University. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reminiscent music improves physical upper limb function or daily living independence more than standard care or robot therapy alone. The primary outcome and physical secondary outcomes showed no significant difference between the groups, despite the music group scoring higher on psychological measures like self-efficacy.