effect of music therapy and distraction cards on anxiety among hospitalized children with chronic diseases

Background: hospitalization is recognized as a frightening and stressful experience for children. these negative consequences are intensified when children experience a frequent number of hospitalizations. in this regard, various non-pharmacological approaches have been introduced to reduce these negative consequences, one of which is playing and listening to music.aim: the present study aimed to determine the effect of music therapy and distraction cards on the anxiety of hospitalized children with chronic diseases.method: this randomized clinical trial was performed on 83 children with chronic diseases aged 8-12 years who were hospitalized in akbar pediatric hospital in mashhad, iran. the participants were assigned to three groups, namely cards, music, and cards + music groups. the intervention which involved listening to favorite music and playing with distraction cards was performed on two consecutive days (duration=20 minutes). data collection tools included the spence children’s anxiety scale and demographic characteristics questionnaire. data were analyzed in spss software (version 22) using descriptive and inferential statistics.results: in the current study, the mean scores of children’s anxiety in the groups of music, cards, and cards + music after the intervention were reported as 54.8±20.1, 42.7±15.0, and 51.3±15.5, respectively. moreover, the anova results demonstrated a significant difference in this regard (p=0.038).in addition, the wilcoxon test results were indicative of a significant difference between the cards (p=0.013) and cards + music (p=0.015) groups regarding the three subscales of anxiety before and after the intervention.implications for practice: playing with distraction cards decreased anxiety and fear in children to a greater extent, as compared to music therapy. therefore, the active distraction method can be a practical approach to reduce anxiety and fear in hospitalized children.