Preoperative Music Intervention for Anxiety in Hip and Knee Arthroplasty

Many patients feel anxious before joint replacement surgery. This anxiety is common - affecting roughly 1 in 3 patients - and research has shown that patients who are more anxious before surgery tend to have more pain afterward and may need more pain medication during recovery. Listening to music before medical procedures has been shown to reduce anxiety in many types of surgery. In fact, a recent analysis of 20 studies found that music works about as well as anti-anxiety medication for calming patients before surgery, with about 1 in 4 patients experiencing a meaningful benefit. However, almost all of this research has been done in other types of surgery. No study has specifically tested whether letting patients listen to their own preferred music before hip or knee replacement surgery reduces their anxiety. This study will randomly assign 52 patients scheduled for hip or knee replacem