The Effects of Music on Diminishing Anxiety Among Preoperative Patients

• A practical and useful strategy for diminishing patients' anxiety in the preoperative area is proposed.
• Patients listening to music preoperatively are showing a greater decrease in anxiety than those not listening to music.
• Patients reporting a high initial anxiety level who are listening to music are showing the greatest decrease in anxiety.

The purpose of this project was to examine the effect of music on anxiety among preoperative patients. A convenience sample of 137 patients participated in this two-group quasi-experimental study. Participants were assigned to a music group (n = 73) or a nonmusic group (n = 64). Both groups were similar in terms of gender, age, and initial anxiety level. Clinical experts designated surgeries as invasive (n = 48) or noninvasive (n = 89), and no difference in initial anxiety level was found between these two groups. Findings showed that patients who listened to music had a small significant decrease in anxiety when compared with patients in the nonmusic group. In addition, results showed that the influence of music on changes in anxiety was related to initial anxiety level. For example, patients with high levels of anxiety in the music group had the largest change in anxiety when compared with other participants.