Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Healthy Longevity Translational Research Program, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Aging (Albany NY). 2020 Dec 18;12(24):24798-24816. doi: 10.18632/aging.202374.
We conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine choral singing's effect on cognitive decline in aging. Older Singaporeans who were at high risk of future dementia were recruited: 47 were assigned to choral singing intervention (CSI) and 46 were assigned to health education program (HEP). Participants attended weekly one-hour choral singing or weekly one-hour health education for two years. Change in cognitive function was measured by a composite cognitive test score (CCTS) derived from raw scores of neuropsychological tests; biomarkers included brain magnetic resonance imaging, oxidative damage and immunosenescence. The average age of the participants were 70 years and 73/93 (78.5%) were female. The change of CCTS from baseline to 24 months was 0.05 among participants in the CSI group and -0.1 among participants in the HEP group. The between-group difference (0.15, =0.042) became smaller (0.12, =0.09) after adjusting for baseline CCTS. No between-group differences on biomarkers were observed. Our data support the role of choral singing in improving cognitive health in aging. The beneficial effect is at least comparable than that of health education in preventing cognitive decline in a community of elderly people. Biological mechanisms underlying the observed efficacy should be further studied.
我们进行了一项随机对照试验，以检验合唱对衰老过程中认知能力下降的影响。招募了有较高未来痴呆风险的老年新加坡人：47 人被分配到合唱干预组（CSI），46 人被分配到健康教育计划组（HEP）。参与者每周参加一小时的合唱或一小时的健康教育，为期两年。认知功能的变化通过由神经心理学测试原始分数得出的综合认知测试分数（CCTS）来衡量；生物标志物包括脑磁共振成像、氧化损伤和免疫衰老。参与者的平均年龄为 70 岁，73/93（78.5%）为女性。CSI 组参与者从基线到 24 个月的 CCTS 变化为 0.05，HEP 组参与者的 CCTS 变化为-0.1。调整基线 CCTS 后，组间差异（0.15，=0.042）变小（0.12，=0.09）。在生物标志物方面未观察到组间差异。我们的数据支持合唱在改善衰老过程中的认知健康方面的作用。这种有益的效果至少与健康教育在预防老年人认知能力下降方面相当。应该进一步研究观察到的疗效的生物学机制。
