Adults who received pink noise before and during a colonoscopy had significantly lower anxiety than those in the white-noise and control groups, while participants who received either type of noise had significantly lower pain scores than the control group during and after the procedure. The study also reported no statistically significant difference between the two noise groups in the comparison that followed the pain analysis. The result separates the two outcomes: pink noise stood out on anxiety, but neither sound was shown to outperform the other on that pain comparison.
A short sound intervention
The researchers set out to evaluate and compare white and pink noise given before and during colonoscopy, measuring anxiety and pain in adults undergoing the procedure. They described the work as a randomized controlled study, with participants randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. It included 135 participants, randomly assigned to three groups of 45: White Noise, Pink Noise and Control. For each noise group, the sound was continuous for 20 minutes before the procedure and for another 20 minutes during it.
Pink noise stood out on anxiety
Anxiety scores changed significantly over time in all three groups. The report gives p-values, a statistical measure used for the study's comparisons, of 0.015 for Control, 0.006 for White Noise and less than 0.001 for Pink Noise. In the between-group comparison, the Pink Noise group had significantly lower anxiety than the other groups, with p < 0.001. But the report does not provide the group means or absolute differences. It also omits effect sizes, which describe how large a difference is, and confidence intervals, which show the uncertainty around an estimate. From the supplied results, the scale of the anxiety gap cannot be judged.
The pain result was shared
The pain findings were more uniform. Pain scores were significantly lower in both the White Noise and Pink Noise groups than in Control during and after the procedure, with all reported p-values below 0.001. The Results section reports no statistically significant difference between the two noise intervention groups in the comparison after the pain analysis, with p > 0.999. The supplied results include no pain-score values, effect sizes, confidence intervals or measure of the clinical magnitude of the difference.
A narrower reading of the findings
That leaves a fairly specific reading of the trial. In this group of adults, the two sound conditions were associated with lower reported pain than Control, and Pink Noise was associated with lower anxiety than the other groups. The result does not establish a numerical size for either difference, and the no-difference finding between the noise groups does not show that Pink Noise was better than White Noise for pain. The reported outcomes were anxiety and pain around colonoscopy.
The authors interpret the findings as support for using white and pink noise as low-cost, non-invasive and easily implemented additions to pain management and psychological preparation. They say the sounds may improve nursing care and patient outcomes. That is the authors' conclusion; the results reported here are the anxiety and pain comparisons described above.
The size of the effect remains unclear
The study states that the data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, SPSS version 27, and that the trial was registered as NCT07034638 on 24 June 2025. The report does not identify the specific statistical tests used, and it does not supply confidence intervals or effect sizes for the headline comparisons. Those omissions make the direction of the findings clear, but leave their size difficult to judge.
The version of record was published on 20 August 2026. The study received no funding, the listed authors reported no conflicts of interest to disclose, and the data are available on request from the authors.
Paper data and sources
Original title: Effects of white and pink noise administered before and during colonoscopy on pain and anxiety: a randomized controlled trial.
Authors: Çağla Toprak, Seda Cansu Yeniğün Akbulut, Neşe Kurtuluş, Ikbal Cavdar
Journal/Repository: Surgical endoscopy
Status: Peer-reviewed
First online: 2026-08-20
DOI: 10.1007/s00464-026-13165-x
Original paper · Full text