Music as a Nursing Intervention: Effects of Music Listening on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, and Respiratory Rate in Abdominal Surgery Patients

Journal

Nursing & Health Sciences

Year

2011

Abstract

Contradictory results have been presented on how music listening affects patients' blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of music listening on blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate on operation day, and on the first, second, and third postoperative days in abdominal surgery patients. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-post-test design, 168 abdominal surgery patients were assigned every second week to the music group (n=83) or to the control group (n=85) for 25 months. In the music group, the respiratory rate was significantly lower after intervention on both the first and second postoperative days compared with the control group. A significant reduction in systolic blood pressure was demonstrated in the group that received music compared with the control group on both the first and second postoperative days. Evaluation of the long-term effects of music on physiological factors showed that the respiratory rate in the music group was significantly lower compared with the control group. Nurses should offer music listening to surgery patients because of its potential benefit.

Music and Health Institute Terms

Abdominal Surgery; Blood Pressure; Heart Rate; Hospital Setting; Hospitalized Patients; Music Listening; Music Medicine; Pain; Postoperative Pain; Postoperative Patients; Recorded Music Listening; Respiratory Rate; Surgery; Surgical Patients; Vital signs

Indexed Terms

Abdomen; Affect; Elderly; Blood Pressure; Chi-Square Distribution; Heart Rate; Nurse-Patient Relations; Pain Measurement; Postoperative Pain; Respiratory Rate; Time Factors

Study Type

Quasi-Experimental Study; Quantitative Methods

PubMed ID

21902776

Document Type

Article

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