The number of people living with dementia is increasing worldwide. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. It typically manifests itself initially with cognitive impairment in the memory domain and gradually progresses towards affecting all activities of daily living. Active music interventions, particularly singing, may improve mood, social behaviour and quality of life. However, little is known about their effects on cognition, although some studies have provided promising results. The Memory for Music (M4M) project aims to fill this gap in research by measuring the effects of learning new songs on cognitive functioning. Specifically, M4M will examine memory for new songs in non-musician adults with AD after undergoing intensive versus minimal individual musical training based on singing novel songs.

Home-dwelling adults with AD, 65 years or older, will receive 5 months of intensive intervention (2x/week) and 5 months of minimal intervention (1x/month). In a crossover design, participants will be randomised to receive either the intensive or minimal intervention first, with 2 months between the intervention periods. Participants will receive individual music lessons to learn new songs, provided by a music instructor with adequate training. The main outcomes will be measured at the beginning and end of each intervention period. General cognition will be measured with the AD Assessment Scale – Cognitive by an assessor blinded to the randomisation. Participants’ memory for music will be measured using the N400 component of electroencephalographic (EEG) event-related potentials in response to music stimuli. Additional outcomes evaluated during intervention sessions include mood and musical performance observations. With 113 participants randomised, the trial will have 80% power to detect clinically meaningful effects. Relations between mood, memory for music and cognitive abilities will be examined, with sex, age, AD stage, previous musical training and education as covariates. M4M will be conducted in close collaboration between academic researchers, service providers and service users to ensure relevance and applicability.

Dissemination of findings will apply to local, national and international levels. The study has been approved by the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics in Norway (reference number 759936) and by Mautalén Salud e Investigación, CECOM in Argentina (register code 14412).

Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT06611878.

There are estimated to be 3.4 million patients in the UK living after a diagnosis of cancer. We know very little about their quality of life or healthcare usage. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are tools which help to translate a patient’s quality of life into measurable categories, but how to do this at scale remains underexplored. The study employs a randomised design to assess different engagement strategies for optimising participation, data linkage and questionnaire completion in Northwest London and then nationally, with appropriate research approvals.

We have designed and implemented an online, patient-completed, randomised observational trial. We will pilot it in Northwest London before national roll-out, using initially the General Practice (GP) record of a cancer diagnosis and then exploring the use of social media. The primary objective is to explore the feasibility of recruiting participants via self-identification or contact from the primary care research network and obtaining consent to link participants’ PROMs responses to their cancer registry records. Data collection occurs through a secure platform, with participants directly responsible for data entry. There is no formal target sample size because this is a feasibility study, and we want to explore how many patients we can recruit. Analyses will be conducted using descriptive statistics, repeated measures multilevel modelling and machine learning techniques. If a substantial difference in responses between randomisation arms is detected, ineffective strategies will be removed. If no clear difference is observed, recruitment will continue with periodic reviews based on response rates and data completeness.

The Study Coordination Centre has obtained approval from the London—Surrey Research Ethics Committee and Health Research Authority. We will publish and disseminate the results in local, national and international meetings, in peer-reviewed journals, on social media and on websites.

It has been registered under ‘Investigating Digital Outcomes for Cancer Survivors in the Community’ (NCT06095024).

NCT06095024: Investigating Digital Outcomes for Cancer Survivors in the Community.