Impact of Choir Singing in Elderly on Depression Symptoms and Voice Quality

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to verify possible changes in depression and vocal quality in older-adults who engaged in a two-year choir singing activity. Methods: This study has a longitudinal and experimental design. The study group consisted of older-adults, 8 males and 36 females, ranging from 60 to 80 years of age, with an average of 67 years. Depression symptoms and voice quality were measured on each of the four evaluations: at the beginning of their participation in a choir singing activity (baseline) and three other evaluations: after 8 months, after 3 months (intermission), and 21 months. Depressive symptoms were questioned using the Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Vocal Quality (VQ) was measured using the GRBAS scale, two-way Analysis of Variance tested the statistical significance of the differences in GDS and VQ averages among the four evaluations. Pearson correlation coefficients assessed the association between changes in depression and changes in voice quality scores. Results: The mean GDS scores were 2.57, 1.30, 1.05, and 1.48, and the mean VQ were 2.18, 1.61, 1.59, and 1.11, respectively at baseline, after 8 months, after 3 months of intermission, and after 21 months. Depressive symptom reduction was significantly correlated to decrease in hoarseness but not to improvement in total vocal quality. Conclusions: Choir singing improves depressive symptoms and may play an important role in the treatment of emotional problems in the elderly, regardless of the vocal quality improvement. Choir participation should be encouraged to depressive elderly patients.