Tai Po Hospital Music Program Cuts Agitation in Dementia Patients
AM730 · 4 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago5 MIN
Summary
Tai Po Hospital has introduced a personalized music therapy program to help dementia patients manage agitation during hospitalization. The "Music in the Elderly" (樂在『耆』中) initiative, launched by the hospital's Internal Medicine and Geriatric Department, plays songs familiar to patients from their youth to soothe agitation. Over one year, 72 patients aged 65 and above participated, with over 20 percent reducing their reliance on emotion-controlling or sleep medications. The hospital plans to expand the program to acute hospitals and train family members to apply music therapy at home.
Key Points
- The program selects songs from patients' "golden memory period" (ages 10 to 30), when long-term memories are most intact, to trigger familiarity and emotional comfort
- From July 2025 to August 2026, 72 patients aged 65 or above with agitation behaviors participated, with 17 individuals reducing medication use
- Using the Pittsburgh Agitation Scale (PAS), researchers found average agitation scores dropped by 61.2 percent among participants listening to personalized music
- A 78-year-old patient named Mr. Wong, who enjoyed Cantonese opera and 1990s English classics, became calmer and cooperated better with physical therapy after the intervention
- The program originated from a nurse's observation that a patient pulling his nasogastric tube calmed down upon hearing Cantonese opera "Purple Hairpin Story"
Why It Matters
Hong Kong currently has over 100,000 dementia patients, with numbers projected to surge to 330,000 by 2039—meaning nearly one in two people aged 85 and above will be affected . This cost-effective, drug-free approach not only reduces medication side effects like drowsiness and fall risks but also eases pressure on healthcare workers and caregivers . The hospital plans to expand the program to acute wards at Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and train families to continue the therapy at home after discharge .
Hong Kong currently has over 100,000 dementia patients, with numbers projected to surge to 330,000 by 2039—meaning nearly one in two people aged 85 and above will be affected . This cost-effective, drug-free approach not only reduces medication side effects like drowsiness and fall risks but also eases pressure on healthcare workers and caregivers . The hospital plans to expand the program to acute wards at Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and train families to continue the therapy at home after discharge .