There is a need for intervention research to understand how music-based group activities foster engagement in social interactions and relationship-building among care home residents living with moderate to severe dementia. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to describe the design of ‘Music Connects Us’, a music-based group activity intervention. Music Connects Us primarily aims to promote social connectedness and quality of life among care home residents living with moderate to severe dementia through engagement in music-making, supporting positive social interactions to develop intimate connections with others. To develop Music Connects Us, we adapted the ‘Music for Life’ program offered by Wigmore Hall in the United Kingdom, applying an intervention mapping framework and principles of engaged scholarship. This paper describes in detail the Music Connects Us program, our adaptation approach, and key adaptations made, which included: framing the project to focus on the engagement of the person living with dementia to ameliorate loneliness; inclusion of student and other community-based musicians; reduced requirements for care staff participation; and the development of a detailed musician training approach to prepare musicians to deliver the program in Canada. Description of the development, features, and rationale for Music Connects Us will support its replication in future research aimed to tests its effects and its use in clinical practice.

Background: Living with dementia can be a lonely experience, undermining older adults’ quality of life. Evidence supports that personal contact interventions can address older adults’ loneliness. However, effects have been small to date, and little is known about how one’s perceptions of baseline contact may influence an intervention’s use and effects. The purpose of this study was to explore how baseline contact, as perceived by older adults living with dementia, may be associated with the acceptability of a personal contact intervention. Methods: This descriptive study was a secondary analysis of data that we collected from 15 people living with mild to moderate dementia in a long-term care home who participated in Connecting Today. Connecting Today is a personal contact intervention that involves 30 minutes of scheduled, unscripted interaction between persons living with dementia and a family member, friend or research assistant. Visits occurred for six weeks, face-to-face or by phone. We compared groups that perceived that they had high (i.e., weekly, n=8) versus low (i.e., monthly or unknown, n=7) contact at baseline to explore differences in acceptability. We measured perceived acceptability (adapted Treatment Perception and Preferences Questionnaire) and the amount and reasons reported for missing data and study withdrawal. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and proportions and frequencies were compared in tables and charts to explore differences between groups.Results: In visits one and two when there were little missing data, a larger proportion (85.7% to 100%) of low contact participants reported feeling better, that the visits helped them, and that the visits were easy ‘mostly’ or ‘a lot’, as compared to the high contact group (37.5% to 62.5%). Retention and attrition after visit two further supported that Connecting Today may be more acceptable for people with low perceived baseline contact: the majority of missing data (71%) and all study withdrawals were observed in the high contact group. Conclusions: Testing the hypotheses generated in this study about the influence of perceived baseline contact upon acceptability in larger feasibility and effectiveness studies will support development of tailored, theory-based personal contact interventions.

Our study aimed to explore how perceived baseline contact may influence acceptability of Connecting Today, a personal contact intervention, among people living with dementia. We aimed to generate hypotheses for testing in future studies. This was a sub-group analysis of pilot study data. Fifteen people living with mild to moderate dementia participated in Connecting Today. We explored how perceptions of intervention acceptability may differ in groups reporting weekly contact (n = 8) compared with groups reporting monthly/unknown (n = 7) contact at baseline. Measures of acceptability included a treatment perceptions and preferences questionnaire, and the number of and reasons for non-consent, missing data, and study withdrawal. We used descriptive statistics and content analysis. In visits one and two, a larger proportion (85.7–100%) of low baseline contact participants reported feeling better, and indicated that the visits helped them and were easy “mostly” or “a lot”, compared with the high baseline contact group (37.5–62.5%). Most missing data (71%) and all study withdrawals occurred in the high baseline contact group. Scheduled in-person visits with family, friends, or a volunteer may appeal to residents in care homes who have few existing opportunities for routine, one-on-one visits with others. Hypotheses generated should be tested in future studies.