Project Summary:
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the country, threatening the health of the elderly. Participation in cardiac rehabilitation programs reduces mortality and risk of a major cardiovascular event in secondary prevention populations, including older adults. Unfortunately, older adults (and more so, older women and Black persons) are less likely to participate in regular exercise or cardiac rehabilitation due to age-related complexities, including multi-morbidities (arthritis, chronic lung disease, diabetes), polypharmacy, frailty, deconditioning, falls, disability, and other challenges that make exercise participation difficult. Alternative rehabilitation therapies are needed to reduce CVD burden and improve health in the aging population.
Singing is a physical activity, and the physiological demands of singing are comparable with walking at a moderately brisk pace, suggesting that the health benefits with singing may overlap with that of exercise. The impact of singing on cardiovascular health, especially in older adults, has not been extensively studied. Endothelial dysfunction predicts cardiovascular events, and physical exercise improves vascular endothelial function.
This project team was the first to demonstrate that 30 minutes of solo singing improves endothelial function acutely, regardless of singing expertise. The observed change in endothelial function translates into a ~25% reduction in CVD risk, which is comparable to traditional cardiac rehabilitation participation. Based on these findings, the project's goal is to test a central hypothesis that habitual singing over several weeks, similar to habitual exercise, will lead to sustained and favorable vascular adaptation, thereby lowering future CVD risk. The overall objective of this proposal is to refine and protocolize group singing interventions and test the feasibility of group singing that the team would implement in a future, larger clinical trial of efficacy (R01).