Table 1.

Description of included studies.

Study and Year	N	Dementia severity	Intervention	Outcome measures	Group vs. individual therapy	Prescribed vs. individualized music	Active vs. passive music intervention
Clark et al., 1998	Total N: 18 T/C: 9/9	Severe (MMSE)	Experimental group: 10 baths with favorite music during bathing, distributed on a 2 weeks period	Agitation checklist	Individual	Individualized	Passive
			Control group: Standard care (no music during bathing)
Janata, 2012	Total N: 38 T/C: 19/19	Moderate to severe (MMSE)	Experimental group: session length (min): 25/65; Frequency (times/week): 84/12; Music streaming for several hours per day (two times in the morning and two times in the evening) each day for 12 weeks	CMAI	Individual	Individualized	Passive
			Control group: Standard care
Lin et al., 2011	Total N: 100 T/C: 49/51	Moderate to severe (MMSE)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 12/6; Two times a week for 6 weeks	MMSE	Group	Individualized	Passive
			Control group: Standard care
Raglio et al., 2008	Total N: 59 T/C: 30/29	Moderate to severe (CDR)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 30/16; Three cycles of 10 MT sessions within a period of 16 weeks	NPI	Group	Individualized	Active
			Control group: standard care
Raglio et al., 2010	Total N: 60 T/C: 30/30	Severe (MMSE)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 36/12; Three cycles of 12MT sessions each, Three times a week for 12 weeks	NPI	Group	Not mentioned	Active
			Control group: standard care
Raglio et al., 2015	Total N: 120 T/T/C: 31/32/35	Moderate to severe (CDR and MMSE)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 20/10; Twice a week for 10 weeks	NPI	Individual and group	Individualized	Active and passive
			Control group: Standard care
Remington, 2002	Total N: 34 T/C: 17/17	Mild to severe	Four groups were used to test the effect of a 10 min exposure to either calming music, hand massage, or calming music and hand massage simultaneously, or no intervention (control). Only data from the music group and control group were used in the analysis.	CMAI	Individual	Prescribed	Passive
			Experimental group: 1 session with 10 min music intervention
			Control group: standard care
Ridder et al., 2013	Total N: 42 T/C: 21/21	Moderate to severe (MMSE and GDS)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 12/6; Two times a week for 6 weeks	CMAI	Individual	Prescribed	Active
			Control group: standard care
Sakamoto et al., 2013	Total N: 39 T/C: 13/13/13	Severe (MMSE)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 10/10; Once a week for 10 weeks	BEHAVE-AD	Individual	Individualized	Active and passive
			Control group: standard care
Sung et al., 2006a	Total N: 57 T/C: 32/25	Moderate to severe (GDS)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 12/6; Two times a week for 6 weeks	CMAI	Group	Individualized	Active
			Control group: standard care
Sung et al., 2006b	Total N: 36 T/C: 18/18	Moderate to severe (GDS)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 8/4; Two times a week for 4 weeks	CMAI	Group	Individualized	Active
			Control group: standard care
Sung et al., 2012	Total N: 55 T/C: 27/28	Mild to moderate (MMSE)	Experimental group: session length (min): 30; Frequency (times/week): 12/6; Two times a week for 6 weeks	CMAI	Group	Individualized	Active
			Control group: standard care

T/C, treatment/control group; MMSE, mini mental state examination; CDR, clinical dementia rating; GDS, global deterioration scale.