Economic Evaluations of Music Therapy and Other Music-Based Interventions: A Scoping Review

The cost-effectiveness of an intervention is an important factor in health care decisions about which health care services should be publicly funded and/or approved as an eligible intervention for private insurance coverage. Music therapy as a health profession lacks substantial research on the cost-effectiveness of its services and there is no overview of existing data. We therefore conducted a scoping review. To contextualize and focus the scope, we describe different types of economic evaluations (EEs) and characterize four types of music interventions. Following the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews, we systematically searched six databases (EBSCOHost, ProQuest, Web of Science, APA PsycNet, Scopus, and Prospero) in January 2023, and, after screening the initial 1,041 hits, 26 references were included in the review. The results consist of 19 completed and 7 planned EEs published between 1999 and 2022, mainly in the United States. The results show a heterogeneous picture with regard to: (a) the health economic methods used, ranging from cost analyses to cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs), and one social return on investment analysis; (b) the service users involved, ranging from neonatal intensive care patients to persons with dementia and care staff; (c) the outcomes and cost components examined in the respective studies; and (d) the type of study and the conclusions drawn from the results. Accordingly, this scoping review provides an up-to-date overview of health economic studies and identifies research gaps in the field of music interventions for health-related goals and aims to contribute to the discussion on this topic.