The Effects of Music Therapy on Vital Signs, Feeding, and Sleep in Premature Infants

Abstract

Premature infants experience various health problems such as instability of vital signs, difficulty eating and disturbance sleep-wake status. The objective of this literature review is to identify the benefits of music therapy for the stability of physiological functions, increased sucking behavior, and sleep in premature infants undergoing treatment in Neonates Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This article is a literature review using Sciendirect, SageGroup, Spinger, ProQuest, Google Scolars, and EBsco electronic sources from 2008-2018. Keywords used "Music Therapy" are then selected for full text articles for review. The results of the analysis of 7 articles that fit the inclusion criteria found that music therapy has an effect on a more stable physiological function, maintaining sleep in infants, and increasing sucking in premature infants. The conclusions and recommendations of this article are the use of appropriate music therapy can improve the health status of treated infants so it is recommended as one of the nursing interventions in the NICU room.