Abstract

PUPPOSE: This study was to examine the effects of music therapy on the levels of anxiety and discomfort in patients undergoing gastrofibroscopy.
METHOD
This study was equivalent control group pre-post test design. The subjects were 61 patients who visited H hospital internal medicine department for gastrofibroscopy ; 31 were randomly selected for the control group and the remaining 30, for the experimental group.
RESULT
1. The experimental group who used music therapy showed a significantly lower level of anxiety during gastrofibroscopy than the control group. 2. The experimental group revealed a lesser change in pulse rate between pre and post gastrofibroscopy than the control group. 3. There was a significant difference in the levels of subjective and objective discomfort during gastrofibroscopy between the two groups.
CONCLUSION
The results suggested that music therapy may help relieve anxiety and discomfort for patients undergoing gastrofibroscopy. These results showed that the use of music aided in the reduction of anxiety and discomfort during the unpleasant diagnostic procedure and, testing the effectiveness of music therapy deserves further study in other hospital settings.

• Keywords: Gastrofiberoscopy; Music therapy; Anxiety; Discomfort