The Effect of Hearing Music on Pain Response during Blood Sampling in Neonates

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: We studied this study to see the effect of hearing music on response to pain during needling. We hypothesized that music would reduce pain in newborns. METHODS: Twenty term and near-term newborns were enrolled for the study. They were admitted to neonatal intensive care unit of Hanyang University Guri Hospital from May 1, 2011 to September 30, 2011. We evaluated pain response to needling, such as arterial puncture or heel prick, by using Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS; facial expression, crying, breathing patterns, arms, legs, state of arousal) and duration of crying through video recording. We started video recording when the newborns were stable with 0 score of NIPS, and continued for 3 minutes after needling. Each newborn took video-recordings in 2 separate periods. One was done with hearing music (Music group) and the other without music (Control group). Two observers reviewed the videotapes and gave final scores in agreement. T-test was done for comparisons of pain scale and duration of crying between music and control groups. RESULTS: Mean age and hospital days at test of the subjects were 6+/-5 days of life (1-16 days of life) and 3+/-2 days, respectively. Twenty-one of 40 needlings (52.5%) for blood sample were from radial arterial puncture and 19 (47.5%) from heel prick. The music group had lower NIPS score than the controls (5.6+/-1.1 vs 6.5+/-0.7, P=0.006). Among the NIPS parameters, the music group had lower scores in crying and arm (crying, 1.6+/-0.5 vs 1.9+/-0.3, P=0.028; arm, 0.3+/-0.5 vs 0.7+/-0.5, P=0.01) parameters. The remaining parameters such as facial expression, leg, breathing patterns and state of arousal, and duration of crying were not significantly different in 2 groups. CONCLUSION: c reduced pain response to needling in newborns. Music could be one of modalities to relieve pain during routine medical procedures in newborns.