The use of music as an arts-based method in migrant health research: a scoping review protocol

Abstract

There is increasing recognition that people’s lived experience needs to be incorporated into health decision-making. This has led to rising imperatives for involving the public in health processes, including research. While there have been significant advances in the field, patterns of exclusion still exist in some areas, including migrant participation in health research. Migration and mobility create challenges around social inclusion and this extends to social and cultural practices used in research. There is an emerging body of literature about improving meaningful, participatory spaces for migrants’ involvement in health research using creative tools and techniques that are attuned to cultural diversity. These include the use of arts-based research methods. There is strong evidence for the use of music, particularly singing, as an effective arts-based participatory tool. The goal of this scoping review is to investigate the evidence for the use of music as an arts-based method in migrant health research. Developed by an interdisciplinary team specialising in public and patient involvement; nursing and midwifery; primary health care; and the performing arts, it aims to analyse existing evidence across disciplines that are not usually studied together, identify gaps in current knowledge and use these as a foundation to build effective strategies towards increasing access to and knowledge of participatory, arts-based methods using music in migrant health research. Methods: The protocol for this scoping review follows the guidelines and stages set out in the JBI Reviewer’s Manual (Peters et al., 2017), and by Levac et al, (2010), which build on the methodological framework of Arksey and O’Malley (2005). This incorporates six stages: 1) Identifying the research question; 2) Identifying relevant studies; 3) Study selection; 4) Charting the data; 5) Collating, summarising, and reporting results; and 6) Consultation.

A chorus of voices: social singing and health promotion

“…Recommendations arising from this summit included the need for both experiential, ethnographic research and rigorous, replicable studies. Additionally, Garry et al ( Garry et al , 2020 ) recommend further investigation of singing and songwriting as methods in arts-based research.…”

“…This issue presents researchers who have recognized singing as a creative pathway to involve displaced voices in health research ( Garry et al , 2020 ) particularly in the context of post-conflict migration. Lee et al report an integrative review documenting the role of singing as a music psychosocial intervention for family carers of people living with dementia.…”

The role of the arts in enhancing data literacy: A scoping review protocol

“…The first of these is to identify which art forms (or combination of forms) are being reported in the published literature. There is existing evidence that visual art forms, particularly photography, are the most commonly used media in arts-based research generally [ 17 ] with less evidence for music, for example [ 18 ], however, we do not currently know whether this trend also exists in the use of the arts in data literacy projects.…”

The use of music for children and adolescents living with rare diseases in the healthcare setting: a scoping review study protocol

“…Charting the data: Regarding the preliminary data extraction chart: ‘Table 3. Initial table of the overview of study findings: the characteristics of the studies’, could I kindly request that the authors include a citation in the revised version for Garry et al (2020) 1 in relation to the specific music focused questions presented in the chart? The full reference for this published study protocol is: Garry F, Murphy Tighe S, MacFarlane A, Phelan H. The use of music as an arts-based method in migrant health research: a scoping review protocol [version 1; peer review: 2 approved].…”