Mia Turakhia presented poster on a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of pre-operative music listening on anxiety and stress biomarkers at HARMONICS 2026: The International Conference on Music, Medicine, & Science (program) which took place at the University of California, Irvine’s Student Center on 28-29 October 2026.
Mia proposes a novel music reporting quality score linked to significant music effects; the analysis also shows researcher-selected music to be effective in a much larger proportion of studies than patient-selected music.
Day 2 Poster Program — Thursday, October 29, 2026
P32 Effects of Preoperative Music Listening on Anxiety and Stress Biomarkers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
– Mia Turakhia — Student, The Nueva School
Pacific Ballroom AB. 11:50 AM–12:50 PM. Networking & Exhibits (open viewing): 3:55–4:20 PM. Posters remain on display through the end of the program.
Effects of Preoperative Music Listening on Anxiety and Stress Biomarkers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Examining Music Reporting Quality
Mia Turakhia, The Nueva School; Elaine Chew, King’s College London
Purpose. To quantify the effects of music exposure and content descriptors on anxiety and physiologic stress biomarkers in preoperative patients, addressing prior studies treating music as homogeneous stimuli.
Methods. Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials comparing preoperative and intraoperative recorded music vs no music on heart rate variability (HRV) and anxiety. PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, PsycINFO, and Web-of-Science were searched (01/2008–04/2026). A novel Music Reporting Quality Score (MRQS, 0–3) quantified stimulus detail: 1 (genre only); 2 (named piece + ≥1 acoustic feature); 3 (named piece + ≥3 features, e.g., tempo, instrumentation, loudness).
Results. 19 trials (N=1463 participants) were eligible. Most showed improvements with music (anxiety: 15/18, HRV: 13/17). The pooled Hedges’ g (effect size measure) for validated anxiety scales (-1.14, p<0.001) indicated strong anxiolytic effect. HRV improved with music (g=−0.75; k=5). 0% of MRQS=1 studies vs 81% of MRQS≥2 studies reported significant effects (p=0.003). Slow tempo (≤80 BPM) was beneficial in 10/11 studies. Intraoperative music under anesthesia had no effect. Researcher-selected music was effective in 91% of studies vs 25% for patientselected.
Conclusions. Preoperative music exposure reduces anxiety and physiological stress. Effects were associated with tempo, researcher-selected music, and MRQS, suggesting standardized stimulus reporting in future trials.
