title: Influence of background music on work attention in clients with chronic schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Work attention in persons with chronic schizophrenia is an important issue in vocational rehabilitation. Some of the research literature indicates that background music may influence visual attention performance.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Based on the theory of occupational therapy, environmental sounds, colors and decorations may affect individual performance, this study thus examined the influence of music on work attention in persons with schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were recruited from a halfway house in Taipei. Forty-nine (49) patients with chronic schizophrenia volunteered. They had been accepted into vocational rehabilitation and a work-seeking program. The sample included 20 females and 29 males. The participant ages ranged between 29 and 63 years old, and their average age was 47 years old.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) study, the participants were assigned to one of three conditions: quiet environment as the control group (n= 16), classical light music as background music (n= 16), and popular music as background music (n= 17).
  
  
  RESULTS
  For Group 1 (control group/quiet environment), there was no significant variance (sig = 0.172). For Group 2 (Classical light music), the intervention revealed significant variance (sig = 0.071*). For Group 3 (popular music), the intervention had significant variance (sig = 0.048**).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The introduction of background music tended to increase attention test scores of persons with schizophrenia. Moreover, the increase in test attention scores was statistically significant when popular music was played in the background. This result suggested that background music may improve attention performance of persons with chronic schizophrenia. Future research is required with a larger sample size to support the study results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Psychology, Municipal Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Nuo
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, Jen-Teh Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Miaoli, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chi-Sheng
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsin-Yu
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chien-Hsiou
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational / Q000379:methods*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014937:Work
keywords: Occupational form; attention test; vocational rehabilitation