Music's power to improve waiting room experience studied

A Naval Medical Center San Diego study, “Bridging Music and Military Mental Health,” found a connection between waiting room atmosphere and patient attitude, according to an article on the Health Facilities Management website.

About half study’s participants were given a traditional waiting-room experience with a simple layout of chairs and daytime television programming. 

The other 73 experienced soft instrumental music playing and nature scenes on the screen. 

Patients in the music group were twice as likely to supply comments and personal reflections and the comments themselves were generally much more expressive, the article said. 

Read the article.