A study on the effectiveness of music therapy on depression among elderly people at selected old age home: An epidemiological study on public health perspective in Hyderabad
Background: Aging is a worldwide issue in our society, Elderly people living in old age homes may suffer from sadness, pain, and isolation. Many of them may experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD is a common condition where individuals present with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt, disturbed sleep and/or appetite, low energy and poor concentration. Music has been used more and more frequently and consciously as a mean of care to reduce or stabilize symptoms and/or complications arising therefrom. Method: The study employs the pre-test and post-test for assessing the level of depression among the elderly persons in the old age homes, and with respect to the demographic variables which are used for assessing the levels of depression among both males and females from the study. Results: Findings clearly showed that there was mild level of depression among elderly people before the intervention and the level of depression was decrease after the intervention (music therapy. The study finding show that, the mean post – level of depression scores (1.53) was lower than the mean pre-test score (2.03). Overall 63.3% of samples 38 have mild depression and 20% of the samples 12 have severe depression and remaining are normal in pre-test. Conclusion: The study findings were supported by a pre-experimental study, conducted to investigate the effective of music therapy on depression among elderly people staying in the old age home.