Concomitant with the growth of music intervention research, are concerns about inadequate intervention reporting and inconsistent terminology, which limits validity, replicability, and clinical application of findings. Examine reporting quality of music intervention research, in chronic and acute medical settings, using the Checklist for Reporting Music-based Interventions. In addition, describe patient populations and primary outcomes, intervention content and corresponding interventionist qualifications, and terminology. Searching MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL, HealthSTAR, and PsycINFO we identified articles meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria for a five-year period (2010-2015) and extracted relevant data. Coded material included reporting quality across seven areas (theory, content, delivery schedule, interventionist qualifications, treatment fidelity, setting, unit of delivery), author/journal information, patient population/outcomes, and terminology. Of 860 articles, 187 met review criteria (128 experimental; 59 quasi-experimental), with 121 publishing journals, and authors from 31 countries. Overall reporting quality was poor with <50% providing information for four of the seven checklist components (theory, interventionist qualifications, treatment fidelity, setting). Intervention content reporting was also poor with <50% providing information about the music used, decibel levels/volume controls, or materials. Credentialed music therapists and registered nurses delivered most interventions, with clear differences in content and delivery. Terminology was varied and inconsistent. Problems with reporting quality impedes meaningful interpretation and cross-study comparisons. Inconsistent and misapplied terminology also create barriers to interprofessional communication and translation of findings to patient care. Improved reporting quality and creation of shared language will advance scientific rigor and clinical relevance of music intervention research.

Music-based intervention for hospitalized newborn infants has traditionally been based in a biomedical model, with physiological stability as the prime objective. More recent applications are grounded in other theories, including attachment, trauma and neurological models in which infant, parent and the dyadic interaction may be viewed as a dynamic system bound by the common context of the NICU. The immature state of the preterm infant’s neurological system and particularly auditory system means that no assumptions can be made about auditory processing and stimulation should proceed with caution. The infant’s experience of an unpredictable auditory environment is further compromised by a potential lack of meaningful auditory stimulation. Parents often feel disconnected from their own capacities to nurture their infant. The implications for the infant’s neurobehavioral and psychological well-being are life-long. This perspectives paper will outline the likely neurological considerations for auditory processing in the premature infant as well as establishing a premise for music-based interventions. A hypothetical clinical case will illustrate the application of music by a music therapist with an infant and family in NICU.

Music therapists are challenged to present evidence on the efficacy of music therapy treatment and incorporate the best available research evidence to make informed healthcare and treatment decisions. Higher standards of evidence can come from a variety of sources including systematic reviews. To define and describe a range of research review methods using examples from music therapy and related literature, with emphasis on the systematic review. In addition, the authors provide a detailed overview of methodological processes for conducting and reporting systematic reviews in music therapy. The systematic review process is described in five steps. Step 1 identifies the research plan and operationalized research question(s). Step 2 illustrates the identification and organization of the existing literature related to the question(s). Step 3 details coding of data extracted from the literature. Step 4 explains the synthesis of coded findings and analysis to answer the research question(s). Step 5 describes the strength of evidence evaluation and results presentation for practice recommendations. Music therapists are encouraged to develop and conduct systematic reviews. This methodology contributes to review outcome credibility and can determine how information is interpreted and used by clinicians, clients or patients, and policy makers. A systematic review is a methodologically rigorous research method used to organize and evaluate extant literature related to a clinical problem. Systematic reviews can assist music therapists in managing the ever-increasing literature, making well-informed evidence based practice and research decisions, and translating existing music-based and nonmusic based literature to clinical practice and research development.

Background: Exposure to the voice and language during the critical period of auditory development associated with the third trimester is thought to be an essential building block for language. Differences in the auditory experience associated with early life in the NICU may increase the risk of language delays for premature infants. NICU nurses are fundamental in the care of premature infants; how they use their voices may be important in understanding auditory experiences in the NICU. This study examined voice use behaviors of NICU nurses in the United States and their current knowledge of early auditory development. Method: An opt-in, online questionnaire. Results: Nurses reported using their voice more as the age of infants approached term gestation and speaking to infants was the most common type of voice use. Both infant and nurse factors influenced reported voice use decisions in the NICU. Nurses did not believe the NICU auditory environment to be sufficient to meet early auditory needs of premature infants but did believe that premature infants are exposed to adequate voice sounds. Conclusions: A gap in knowledge regarding the importance of early exposure to voice sounds may be a barrier to nurses using their voices to support early auditory development.

"Why music?" is a question I regularly ponder. As a music therapist, educator and researcher I wonder how music creates change in people and why music matters. This curiosity drives my work and resulted in developing the Therapeutic Function of Music Plan (or TFM), an organizational matrix to justify and articulate the purpose and descriptive features of essential music elements within an intervention (Hanson-Abromeit, 2015). Originally designed to assist students and clinicians in articulating the role of music in music therapy, the purpose of this opinion article is to highlight the TFM and its potential to improve the rigor of MBI development, implementation and research.Interest in music-based interventions (MBIs) has grown significantly in the last decade. In the United States, this growth was supported by the Sound Health initiative (https://www.nih.gov/researchtraining/medical-research-initiatives/sound-health), which led to targeted National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for MBI research. There is a call to deepen the scientific rigor of music-based interventions to improve understanding of how and why music is effective in changing human behavior. The NIH Music-based Intervention Toolkit (Edwards et al., 2023) defines parameters for the development and evaluation of MBIs, building consistent research that moves science of MBIs forward. Notably, the toolkit advocates for identification of specific music elements and their incorporation into components of MBIs.The relationship between music and changes in human behavior beyond a casual understanding of music has long been known. Music therapists are responsive to the nuances of human behavior reflected through and with the music for therapeutic function. Early ethnomusicologist Alan Merriam (1964) defined ten functions of music in society: Emotional expression, aesthetic enjoyment, entertainment, fostering meaningful communication, symbolic representation, physical response, enforcing conformity to social norms, validating social institutions and stability of culture, contributing to both the continuity and stability of culture through shared values, and the integration of society through positive social behaviors (Merriam, 1964). Music therapy authors built on Merriam's functions of music to guide therapeutic applications of music within clinical settings (Gfeller, 2008).There is continued interest in exploring functions of music for people within clinical settings.For example, the Therapeutic Music Capacities Model articulates evidence-based research to support seven capacities of music for people with specific neurological disorders as engaging, emotional, physical, personal, social, persuasive, and facilitating synchronization (Brancatisano et al., 2020). For adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder, music has cognitive, emotional, social and identity functions (Kirby and Burland, 2021). Moreover, retrospective approaches examine relationships in the music and behavior (e.g., Bruscia, 1987Bruscia, , 1988)), and systems exist to select prerecorded music for health outcomes (e.g., Rossetti, 2014) or create detailed descriptions of music therapy interventions (Hakvoort & Tönjes, 2023). Review studies look for patterns in how music functions for different populations (e.g., Lepping et al., 2024;Martin-Saavedra et al., 2018;Papatzikis et al., 2024;Robb et al., 2018). This research makes important contributions to understanding the function of music. However, despite the availability of guidelines for reporting music-based interventions (Robb et al., 2011), gaps exist in strong theories to support how music functions for therapeutic application. A bigger gap is our understanding and systematic application of the distinct features of the music for therapeutic outcomes. The TFM can potentially address existing gaps that limit MBI advancements.Best practices in intervention development recommend connecting theories related to outcome, change, and intervention for stronger efficacy of interventions (Sidani & Braden, 2021). Integrated theories in intervention development include theory of health problem (articulates population need and factors that can be changed), theory of change (identifies the proposed mechanism), and the theory of intervention (defines intervention components) (Sidani & Braden, 2021). Within MBIs, adding theory of music communicates the relationship and levels of complexity of music elements (e.g., rhythm, tempo) to the health need, mechanism and intervention components. Distinguished from traditional music theory, which identifies common patterns and methods for "rules" of creating and performing music, theory of music hypothesizes how and why music actively contributes to change (Hanson-Abromeit, 2015;Hanson-Abromeit & Sena Moore, 2022). Thus, theory of music guides the musical features specific to MBIs outcome and mechanism.The TFM is an organizational matrix that connects a theoretical premise built from music theory, basic, and applied sciences to inform the purpose of core music elements deemed to target population specific outcomes. The TFM clarifies essential music elements and explicitly describes features of these music elements. A synthesis of this information summarizes the theory of music, which informs music selection or original musical composition and reporting details of MBIs (Hanson-Abromeit, 2015). Figure 1 The NIH MBI toolkit (Edwards et al., 2023) recommends seven components to advance rigor and scientific value of MBIs. These include a conceptual framework, clear research questions, supporting data to assess the hypotheses, common elements or building blocks of the MBI, a detailed description of the MBI, details of intervention delivery, information on the intervention population, and comparison or control groups. The TFM offers a solution to improving MBI development and evaluation aligned with the NIH MBI toolkit.The TFM contributes to the conceptual framework...

Background: Emerging evidence suggests that low socioeconomic status (SES) home environments may play a role by promoting excess energy intake through a lack of access to non-food reinforcers. Because of the deleterious effects of SES-related disparities on child health and development, feasible and culturally acceptable interventions are urgently needed. Community-based music enrichment programs may be an ideal intervention strategy. Methods: In collaboration with a local non-profit organization and music studio, we conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of a music enrichment program versus a play date control in a group of 9–24-month-old healthy infants (N = 16). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas City. This study is registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05868811). Results: Overall, we found some intervention effects on the relative reinforcing value of food (RRV_food) and the home environmental enrichment measures (i.e., increased music use at home and the home language environment). Our intervention demonstrated large effects on the increased use of music at home. We did not find significant group differences in the RRV_food and home language environment, but some of the effect sizes were medium-to-large. Results also suggest that our intervention is feasible and acceptable. Parent feedback indicated that the intervention was well-liked and that the steps we took to help reduce barriers worked. Conclusions: Music enrichment programs may be a high-impact, low-cost strategy to address socioeconomic disparities.