Singing for People With Aphasia (SPA)

University of Exeter

Status: Completed

Conditions: Aphasia

Treatments: Behavioral: Singing group + resource pack; Behavioral: Resource pack

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03076736

1617\014\140293

Details and patient eligibility

About

To undertake a pilot study that will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of procedures to inform the design and delivery of a definitive RCT of SPA (which would assess the clinical and cost effectiveness of SPA for people with aphasia)

Full description

Beyond language function, people with aphasia (PWA) report a range of health problems which negatively affect wellbeing, including reduced confidence and social isolation. These psychosocial outcomes of aphasia are not sufficiently met by healthcare services: improvements in language function do not appear to lead to improvements in wellbeing. National clinical guidelines for stroke reflect this observation and highlight the need for community integration and participation of people with aphasia. This research is about singing groups for people with aphasia (SPA) and is intended to address this need by focusing on the wellbeing and social participation needs of people with aphasia after stroke.

The Investigators engagement activities and early development project provided strong impetus for the proposed study: people with aphasia repeatedly told the investigators that singing in groups may help the participants to reconnect with society, and that this will improve wellbeing.

The investigators have planned a pilot study that will allow an assessment of the extent to which the study processes and the singing groups themselves are feasible to run and are acceptable to participants. The information from this work will help the investigators to decide whether to conduct a larger randomised controlled trial (RCT) which would be a fair test of whether SPA can improve the lives of individuals with post stroke aphasia.

Enrollment: 41 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Diagnosis of aphasia after stroke
• Willingness to be randomised to either control or SPA (and able to attend the singing venue)
• Conversational English speaker pre-morbidly
• Capacity to consent (assessed by recruiting team using standard tools)

Exclusion criteria

• <18 years old
• Currently engaged in a speech or language therapy programme
• Intention to relocate outside the geographical region during the study
• Current participation in another study involving a lifestyle intervention
• Currently attending a singing/music group

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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41 participants in 2 patient groups

Resource pack

Active Comparator group

Description:

Aphasia resource pack

Treatment:

Behavioral: Resource pack

Singing group + resource pack

Experimental group

Description:

Singing group + Aphasia resource pack

Treatment:

Behavioral: Singing group + resource pack