Table 3.

Thematic analysis of open-ended responses to question 19: “Could you briefly explain why you referred a patient to a choir?” (89 answers).

Theme		Occurrences	Quote (Example of a Participant)
Targeted domains
	Speech and voice	34	“To free his voice, (…) stimulate rhythm and voice projection” (P393)
	Social ties	33	“to regain a social link” (P297)
	Pleasure	15	“because I thought it was very important for the patient to rediscover the pleasure of singing in a group” (P167)
	Language	14	“Because his language is more fluent in singing” (P25)
	Well-being	11	“Continuity of the work done in speech-language therapy with the addition of a social, playful and well-being dimension” (P312)
	Memory	8	“Patient in the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease seeking to maintain memory” (P304)
	Communication	5	“It depends, it can be for a rather functional or rather communicational purpose, or mixed more often!” (P220)
	Sense of identity	4	“Young patient (stroke) formerly a singer, with experience in choral singing, needing to restore her self-image and skills (…)” (P388)
	Cognitive functions	2	“(…) Cognitive and language stimulation” (P5)
Favorable conditions for the success of this referral
	Former choir singer	9	“these were patients who had already practiced choral singing before and who had stopped because of their disorders” (P177)
	Singing benefits noticed	5	“Patient (…) showing clear signs of progress when using singing during sessions” (P12)
	Available adapted choir	5	“Towards a choir set up by the clinic where I worked, in collaboration with France Parkinson (…)” (P43)
	Likes to sing	3	“The patient already had an interest in singing, and liked to sing, so we thought that this would be a good activity” (P239)
	Patient’s request	3	“Because patients were asking for more singing and had trouble doing it alone (…)” (P33)
	Facilitated inclusion	2	“because I am part of this choir and it was easy for me to include them and enjoy the benefits of socialization” (P99)
	Easy to set up	1	“Because easily set up” (P127)
	Sufficient recovery	1	“It was a patient (…) who had progressed enough to feel comfortable again in a small country choir” (P229)
Complementary role to conventional speech-language therapy		16	“(…)to complete/enrich the care” (P73)
Disorders
	Parkinson’s disease	11	“in a patient with Parkinson’s disease, to maintain skills acquired in rehabilitation” (P76)
	Alzheimer’s disease	2	“For a young patient with Alzheimer’s disease in the early stage, the goal is to stimulate memory (…)” (P75)