Effects of Music Therapy on the Heart Rate and Respiration Rate in Premature Infants

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was to evaluate the effects on the heart rate and respiration rate of preterm infants when providing auditory stimulation on them. METHODS: The design of this study was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design in a quasi experimental study. Forty preterm infants were assigned to experimental and control groups 20 in the auditory and 20 in the control group. The data were collected from May 2014 to October. The auditory stimulation was created by using an audio music tape provided 20-minute per day for 7 consecutive days. In data analysis, SPSS WIN 21.0 program was utilized for descriptive statistics, repeated measurement anova and Mann-Whitney. RESULTS: General characteristics of the two groups showed no significant differences, thus two groups were found to be homogenous. There were no significant differences in heart rate and respiration rate between the auditory and control groups. CONCLUSION: The effect of auditory stimulation for 7 days was not effective in decreasing heart rate or respiration rate in premature infants. Therefore, the type and length of music therapy must be developed for the improvement of vital signs in preterm infants who were hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit.