Effects of Quran Recitation on The Reduction of Anxiety Before Elective Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Background: Anxiety is a common reaction among patients undergoing surgery. Religious believes are regarded as psychological methods that are used for the management of anxiety. The aim of this study is assessing the effectiveness of Quran recitation on reducing the anxiety before the elective surgery.Methods: A systematic review of the citations in the Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PsycInfo, Arab World Research Source and other relevant databases was performed to collect the data. Randomized clinical trials about the effect of Quran recitation on the reduction of anxiety before elective surgery were included without any Language and date restriction. Interventions with self-reading/self-recitation were excluded. The Cochran’s Q statistic and the (I2) with 50 percent threshold was used for calculation of the heterogeneity and the inconsistency index. The funnel plot has been used to evaluate the possibility of the publication bias.Results: We identified 2381 studies from the systematic search. Of these, twelve were included in the qualitative synthesis and nine studies included in the quantitative synthesis. Our meta-analysis showed a significant reduction in the anxiety level with Quran recitation. The heterogeneity of the included studies was statistically significant (Q=23.05, I2=65.29, P=0.003). The pooled effect size of the anxiety was d=−8.893; 95% CI=[−10.763 to −7.022] (P < 0.001), and there was no publication bias (t=0.907, P=0.39) in the studies.Conclusion: Quran recitation can be considered as a non-invasive and peaceful intervention to reduce anxiety before elective surgery.