• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.35-50
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• 2001

This study was conducted for the evaluation of the effects of singing program combined with physical exercise on the physiologic changes, perception function and degree of depression. The subjects were the members of elderly women's glee club in D care center for the elderly, who have been singing for more than 6 months. 30 members were allocated to study group and 30 to control group. The singing program designed for both physical therapy and music therapy was consisted of initial physical exercise, singing art songs and classical song and the finishing physical exercise. This program was performed twice a week and about forth minutes was consumed for one session. We checked the heart rate, peripheral arterial oxygen saturation, perception function and degree of depression before and after the program. We used a pulse oxymeter to check the heart rate to oxygen saturation and a questionnaire for the evaluation of perception function and degree of depression. We need SPSS program for data analysis. The results of the investigated personnel complying with general characteristics were analyzed by frequency, two groups by t-test, data before and after the program by paired t-test, respectively. The results were as follows. 1) Heart rate after the program was significantly lower than that before program in test group(p<0.05). 2) Peripheral oxygen saturation after the program was significantly higher than that before the program(p<0.05). 3) Ability to match the right sign with a certain predetermined number was improved after the program. The frequency of wrong matching the sign with number before program was 30. But the frequency was decreased to 8 after the program. 4) Ability to calculate was improved after the program. The frequency of wrong calculation before the program was $1.10{\pm}1.94$. But the frequency after the program was decreased to $0.97{\pm}1.84$. 5) The degree of depression after the program($2.07{\pm}0.49$) was significantly lower than that before program(p<0.001). These results show that singing program combined with physical exercise improves the oxygen delivery to peripheral circulation, stability of heart function, the perception function(calculating and matching ability) and decreases the degree of depression. In conclusion, singing program combined with physical exercise can be used for the effective measure to improve the health of elderly and prevent dementia.