Música em doentes hospitalizados: Alterações na frequência cardíaca

Introduction: Music can be characterized as a representation of feelings, having also scientifically evidenced benefits in various contexts. The heart rate variability is directly related to the central nervous system and any situations that can influence it. Therefore, depending on the type of music, heart rate may be subject to changes that may be related to the emotional wellbeing that music stimulate. To that purpose, the main objective was to study the heart rate variation in a group of individuals exposed to music that can trigger different emotional states. Methods: In the first phase of the study, 20 classical music songs were tested in 73 healthy subjects, in order to distinguish two songs that stimulate distinct emotions with the purpose of applying them in the second phase of the study, namely to a sample collected in 3 geographical dispersed hospitals, so as to ensure an evaluation in the same clinical contexts but different geographic locations. The two songs were applied to 50 subjects and we registered the heart rate in four different times, before and after each song with an interval of 3 minutes between each time, including a break between songs. Thus, this study is considered prospective cross-sectional with non-probability sampling technique for convenience. Results: We found statistically significant differences in heart rate at the 2-4 moment (p = 0.04) and at the 3-4 moment (p = 0.005), with a significant correlation of the same with Gender and Moment (p = 0.019), Place and Moment / Music (p = 0.039) and Stress and Moment / Music (p = 0.030). Conclusion: We found changes in heart rate according to the emotional nature of music, thus confirming the central research hypothesis of this study.