Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of music therapy interventions on grief and spirituality of family members of patients in a hospice setting. The subjects (N = 60) were the family members or significant others of hospice patients who had been in the hospice program for at least 2 weeks. The subjects were divided into a control group (N = 30), the family members of patients previously with no music therapy visit, and an experimental group (N = 30), the family members of patients receiving music therapy interventions. Three imminent patients were also included in both groups. A self-report questionnaire was used for a post-test only in this study and had 5 categories: grief, coping strategies, spirituality, satisfaction with hospice care, and satisfaction for family members’ or significant other’s perceptions of the loved one’s quality of life (QOL). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was applied to analyze data in each subtest. There was a significant difference in mean scores of QOL between the control and experimental groups. Although the mean scores of grief and spirituality in the experimental group were higher than the scores of those with no music therapy, a significant difference was not found in the 4 subtests. However, there was a tendency that those who received music therapy showed higher scores than those who did not in each subtest. In addition, the mean scores of family members of imminent patients were much higher than those with no music therapy in all 5 categories. The results in this study support that music has a potential to provide a positive influence for patients and their family members in a hospice setting. Further quantitative research for family members of imminent patients were suggested to provide better music therapy services in a hospice and palliative care.
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