Group singing in Parkinson’s disease: perspective of group leaders

Objective Group therapeutic singing (GTS) has emerged as a popular intervention for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). A better understanding of how GTS is structured and delivered is needed to inform future studies. Qualitative interviews were completed to understand the perceptions and experiences of group singing leaders.Methods Eleven semi-structured qualitative interviews were completed with PD singing group leaders from across the United States. After interviews were transcribed, content analysis was conducted and the authors analyzed similarities and differences in responses across cases.Findings Three main themes emerged from the content analysis; similarities and differences in motivations to start the groups, methods of recruitment, and structure of groups. Commonalities regarding what worked well and what did not work well across singing groups for persons with PD were also discussed.Discussion The perspectives of the group leaders shed light on recruitment challenges and intervention structure similarities that may be useful in the design of future multi-site clinical trials.