Soundscape optimization with MoSART+ in dementia nursing home wards

International audience; In nursing homes, staff, household appliances, and other patients produce unexpected, repetitive, loud and droning noises. These sounds can be perceived as unpleasant, disturbing, and unsafe. Pleasant sounds are offered sparsely. This makes the soundscape often suboptimal for residents. This holds especially for people with dementia who are highly sensitive to detrimental auditory environments, due to diminished cognitive functions and often limited sensory abilities. We used the sound awareness programme ?MoSART? to optimize the sound environment in four nursing homes. Each had four or five dementia care units (?houses? with a shared living room). During this cluster-randomized trial, every three months a nursing home switched from care as usual to the MoSART+ intervention. This intervention consisted of four training sessions for ambassadors, the use of the MoSART smartphone app and meetings for the nursing staff. In each nursing home we selected two or three ?ambassadors? who were enthusiastic about the topic and had authority. The training session of the ambassadors provided them with background in soundscape theory, the relationship between auditory environments and psychological well-being, and use of the MoSART-app. The app makes an audio recording while the caregiver fills in a short questionnaire on the appraisal of the auditory environment. This takes 30 seconds or a bit longer. The meeting of the nursing staff are led by the ambassadors. They discuss the auditory environment and aim to improve the environment by micro-interventions. The MoSART+ intervention takes 10 weeks. Results show that the soundscapes in all the four houses improved after use of the MoSART+ intervention. Comparison of the baseline measurement with the measurement after implementation of the micro-interventions showed that chaotic and boring environments were reduced substantially and more calm and lively soundscapes occurred.