The effects of music and Holy Quran on patient's anxiety and vital signs before abdominal surgery

Anxiety is one of the emotional conditions among patients scheduled for surgery that can result in increasing postoperative pain, increasing analgesic and anesthetic requirements and prolonged hospital stay. To assess the effectiveness of listening to music and Holy Quran on patient’s anxiety and vital signs before abdominal surgery it was a blind and three-group clinical trial. Ninety patients who were scheduled to undergo abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to three groups of music, Holy Quran and control. Subjects in music and Holy Quran group listened to the music and Holy Quran for 20 minute before surgery. Control group received no intervention. Anxiety and Vital signs were measured before and after intervention in three groups. To measure Anxiety Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory was used. Data were analyzed with SPSS Software (v.11.5), using statistical tests including Chi square, Fisher exact test and ANOVA and P value less than 0.05 considered statistically significant. Patients in music and Holy Quran group experienced significantly less anxiety (p=0.001). Listening to the music and Holy Quran also decreased patient’s heart rate (p<0.02) and blood pressure significantly (p<0.004). No significant changes were found in the control group. Listening to the music and Holy Quran is a systematic intervention and complementary treatment for pre-operative patients that can decrease the anxiety level and physiological responses to the stress of surgery