New music app helps people living with dementia perform everyday tasks

Memory Tracks creates a song-task association to make daily life of those living with dementia easier

A new app that connects memorable songs to daily activities could be used to help those with dementia to cope with the challenges of daily life.

Memory Tracks, developed with help from Dr Stuart Cunningham, Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, connects popular songs from a time when the dementia patient was younger to their daily activities, such as eating, dressing or taking medication to make the tasks easier.

More than 850,000 people are living with dementia across the UK, and although a common symptom of the disease is memory loss, dementia patients are still often able to recall songs played to them that they heard in their earliest years.

Working with academics from Wrexham Glyndwr University and the University of Creative Arts, the team has been trailing the app across two care homes in North Wales and findings published in the Journal of Healthcare Engineering reported that residents became more engaged and focussed on their tasks, which made caring for them much easier.

Positive changes

Dr Cunningham said: “Besides the person who has dementia, the condition has a profound impact upon their loved ones and carers. One therapeutic approach to reduce symptoms is the use of music, an area recognised as having potential benefit, but requiring further research.

“Our research examines the use of a musical mobile app as a way to promote song-task association in people living with dementia and over the 14 weeks we have been trailing the app, we have seen positive changes in terms of behaviour, ability, and routine in the life of residents living with dementia.”

The app can be triggered by care home staff, but also has a scheduling function that allows songs to be played at specific times of the day, such as when taking medication.

In follow-up interviews and questionnaires with the staff, differences in eating meals, getting dressed and washing were reported as the biggest improvements and said it had become an important tool for some residents.

One female dementia resident at the Caernarfon care home had an issue with eating and meant she was unable to recognise the food presented to her. During the trial the song Paper Doll by The Mills Brothers, which came out in 1943, was played to her at meal times. Staff reported that on recognising the song, the resident’s mood visibly lifted from being in a confused state to beginning to eat normally.

Her daughter said: “With the music, her spirits were brightened. I have seen the difference it made to my own mother and there will be lots of other people out there that Memory Tracks can also help.”

Long-term impact

The research team is hopeful that the association between music and tasks can have a greater long-term impact by reducing the challenges of confusion and distress that they experience.

Dr Cunningham added: “It’s exciting to see the benefits that our app has already had in these early stages. By improving the quality of life of people living with dementia, we can also improve overall health and reduce the need for external professional intervention from nurses or GPs.”

The team’s next steps are to expand their research into more care homes and to individuals caring for dementia patients at home.

They also hope to develop the app in future stages of the research to use sensors and artificial intelligence to predict behaviours, which can automatically trigger the songs for each task.

The research was supported by a grant from the Consortium for Research Excellence, Support and Training (CREST) and was carried out in collaboration with researchers at the University for the Creative Arts, Wrexham Glyndwr University, in partnership with Memory Tracks and Pendine Park Organisation.

This story was published ahead of World Alzheimer's Day on Saturday, September 21. Dementia is the broad term used to describe a number of different conditions affecting the brain, including Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. You can find out more here.