The Effects of Maternal Voice on Anxiety and Physiologic Parameters among Children Undergoing Tonsillectomy

Background: Tonsillectomy is an effective surgical technique for managing obstructive sleep apnea and sleep-disordered breathing. Perioperative period is extremely stressful for most children who are candidates for surgeries. Anxiety enhances sympathetic activity and psychological problems. Listening to music is beneficial to patients and children and effect on preoperative anxiety. One of the auditory therapies is maternal voice. Maternal voice is the first and the most important lowfrequency sound that can be heard by fetus Objectives. Objectives: This study sought to assess the effects of maternal voice on anxiety and physiologic parameters among children who were candidates for tonsillectomy. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was made in 2015 on sixty 4-8 year-old children who were going to undergo a tonsillectomy surgery. Children were conveniently and consecutively recruited and randomly allocated to an experimental or a control group based on the day of their surgery. A demographic questionnaire, the Child Rating of Anxiety scale, and a checklist for physiologic parameters were used to collect data. The children in the experimental group received voice therapy twice. Children’s anxiety was assessed before and six hours after the surgery while their physiologic parameters were evaluated eight times before, during, and after the surgery. Results: After the intervention, the groups differed significantly in terms of anxiety mean score (P<0.05). While in the experimental group, the posttest value of anxiety was significantly lower than the pretest one (P<0.05). The results of the repeated measures analysis of variance also illustrated that the study groups differed significantly regarding the mean values of children’s heart rate, diastolic and systolic blood pressures, and arterial oxygen saturation (P<0.05). Conclusions: The findings of the present study indicate the positive effects of recorded maternal voice on children’s anxietyand physiologic parameters during the perioperative period. Therefore, maternal voice can be used for alleviating anxiety and improving physiologic status among children who undergo tonsillectomy