Abstract/Summary

Music-based interventions are commonly used with persons with dementia, yet research exploring the technologies used for spontaneous music listening in dementia and its association with psychological factors was lacking. Persons with (n = 55) and without (n = 66) dementia/cognitive impairment completed a cognitive status interview, online self-report depression, anxiety and rumination scales, and reported their music listening device(s) and frequency of listening. Listening occurred most days and via music-related (i.e. radio) devices more often. Relationships were found between the number of music-related and multi-functional (e.g. laptop) devices used and rumination scores for persons with dementia/cognitive impairment, and between the total number of devices used and depression scores for persons without dementia/cognitive impairment. Cognitive-status scores had opposing relationships with device use for persons with and without dementia/cognitive impairment. To conclude, rumination and depression are associated with the technologies used for music listening by persons with and without dementia/cognitive impairment, respectively. Larger samples and longitudinal and/or experience sampling data could be collected to better understand the relationships identified in our data and their applications.