The purpose of this study is to examine the effects a music group therapy program has on cognitive function and life satisfaction. We targeted the elderly who are receiving service at a daycare center. This study monitored seventeen elderly subjects who were available for language communication, walking, and defecation function even if the subject had a slight mind-body function disorder based on using the service of the daycare facilities. The subjects visited each of the welfare centers one week prior to the Korean classical music group therapy program. We conducted a pre-test of MMSE-K(Mini-Mental State Examination, Korean version) modified by Park and Gwon(1989). We also supplemented the MMSE developed by Folstein(1975) and LSI-A(Life Satisfaction Index) for the elderly developed by Neugarten, Havighurst and Tobin(1961).
We conducted the Korean classical music group therapy program for 15 sessions at 50 minutes each for 1~2 times a week from July 9 to September 13, 2013 at the daycare center for OO senior welfare center. The welfare center belongs to the experimental group, excluding the OO general welfare center, which is the control group.
Finally, we carried out the post-test of the MMSE-K and LSI-A in the same manner as the pre-test. We carried out the post-test on July 17, 2013, 4 days after concluding the Korean classical music group therapy program.
A t-test was used in order to analyze the differences in cognitive function and life satisfaction according to each group. We used SPSS/WIN 18.0 program.
This study has significance by proving that the use of Korean classical music is conducive in the improvement of cognitive function and life satisfaction of the elderly at the daycare facilities. Also, we presented the actual contents of the study to the clinical field.