The Effects of a Music Intervention on Older Adults in the Emergency Department

A visit to the emergency department (ED) is anxiety provoking for patients by nature. Contributing factors may include the sudden timing of the visit, a noisy environment, and waiting in anticipation of a serious diagnosis or bad news. Studies suggest that nearly 75% of adult ED patients may experience mild to severe anxiety in relation to the ED visit, but not directly related to their chief complaint. Anxiety can have deleterious effects on a patient in the clinical setting. Patients may report excessive pain complaints and manifest the typical signs and symptoms of anxiety (e.g. anorexia, dry mouth, nausea, chest pain), which can complicate diagnosis. Patient anxiety can also impose barriers to communication with ED staff, hindering successful delivery of important medical information. A visit to the ED may be particularly distressing for older adults (age 65+), for they are more likely than younger adults to have a greater ED length of stay before discharge home, receive more diagnostic tests and venipuncture for intravenous (IV) access, and have poorer pain care. Music listening as an anxiolytic has been shown to be effective across a variety of clinical settings, however there is a relative paucity of published data on the use of music listening for adult patients in the ED. No published studies, to the investigators' knowledge, have evaluated the effect of music listening on older adults in the ED.