Singing for People with Aphasia (SPA) - version 1

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Singing for People with Aphasia (SPA): A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial of a Group Singing Intervention to Improve Wellbeing

  • IRAS ID

    221353

  • Contact name

    Mark Tarrant

  • Contact email

    M.Tarrant@exeter.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Exeter

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 8 months, 31 days

  • Research summary

    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.

    Our engagement activities and early development project provided strong impetus for the proposed study: people with aphasia who we spoke with repeatedly told us that singing in groups may help them to reconnect with society, and that this will improve their wellbeing.

    We have planned a pilot study that will allow us to assess the extent to which the study processes and the singing groups themselves are feasible to run and are acceptable to participants. The information we get from this work will help us to decide whether we can go on 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.

  • REC name

    South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    17/SW/0060

  • Date of REC Opinion

    24 Mar 2017

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion