Synonyms
Definition
Singing in health contexts typically involves participants with one or more health condition(s) gathering to sing together at weekly rehearsals and sometimes performing within a hospital or health service or in the community. Sessions commonly include a series of warm-up exercises, learning new songs as a group, and singing songs already in the singers’ repertoire. Singing groups may be led by musicians, music educators, music therapists, or community musicians. Typically one or more health professionals are in attendance to support participants who require it. Some health choirs are for patients only while others feature patients and staff, or patients and carers, singing together.
Description
Examples of single condition choirs include the “Sing to Live” choir for people affected by breast cancer in Illinois; the “Brainwaves” and “Stroke a Chord” choirs in Australia for adults who have experienced a stroke; “Sing...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References and Further Reading
Coulton, S., Clift, S., Skingley, A., & Rodriguez, J. (2015). Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of community singing on mental health-related quality of life of older people: Randomised controlled trial. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 207(3), 250–255. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.113.129908.
Dingle, G. A., Williams, E., Jetten, J., & Welch, J. (2017). Choir singing and creative writing enhance emotion regulation in adults with chronic mental health conditions. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56(4), 443–457. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12149.
Dingle, G., Ellem, R., Davidson, R., Haslam, C., Clift, S., Humby, M., Stathis, A., & Williams, E. (2018). Live wires music program connects and aids cognitive performance of older adults. Paper presented at the Australian Association for cognitive behaviour therapy national conference, Brisbane, 25–27 Oct 2018.
Fancourt, D., Williamon, A., Carvalho, L. A., Steptoe, A., Dow, R., & Lewis, I. (2016). Singing modulates mood, stress, cortisol, cytokine and neuropeptide activity in cancer patients and carers. eCancer, 10, 631. https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2016.631.
Lewis, A., Cave, P., Stern, M., Welch, L., Taylor, K., Russell, J., Doyle, A., Russell, A., McKee, H., Clift, S., Bott, J., & Hopkinson, N. S. (2016). Singing for lung health – A systematic review of the literature and consensus statement. NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, 26, 16080. https://doi.org/10.1038/npjpcrm.2016.80.
Moss, H., Lynch, J., & O’Donoghue, J. (2018). Exploring the perceived health benefits of singing in a choir: An international cross-sectional mixed-methods study. Perspectives in Public Health, 138(3), 160–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913917739652.
Pearce, E., Launay, J., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2015). The ice-breaker effect: Singing mediates fast social bonding. Royal Society Open Science, 2, 150221. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150221.
Reagon, C., Gale, N., Dow, R., Lewis, I., & van Duersen, R. (2017). Choir singing and health status in people affected by cancer. European Journal of Cancer Care, 26, e12568. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12568.
Särkämö, T., Tervaniemi, M., Laitinen, S., Numminen, A., Kurki, M., Johnson, J. K., & Rantanen, P. (2013). Cognitive, emotional, and social benefits of regular musical activities in early dementia: Randomized controlled study. The Gerontologist, 54(4), 634–650. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnt100.
Skingley, A., Clift, S., Hurley, S., Price, S., et al. (2018). Community singing groups for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Participant perspectives. Perspectives in Public Health, 133(1), 66–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913917740930.
Williams, E., Dingle, G., & Clift, S. (2018). A systematic review of mental health and wellbeing outcomes of group singing for adults with a mental health condition. European Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cky115. Accepted 26 May 2018.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Dingle, G.A., Clift, S. (2019). Singing and Health. In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_102014-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_102014-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine