Play Interventions to Reduce Anxiety and Negative Emotions in Hospitalized Children

NCT02665403 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: KW/FR-12-020
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 304
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

Hospitalization is a stressful and threatening experience, which can be emotionally devastating to children. Hospital play interventions have been widely used to prepare children for invasive medical procedures and hospitalization. Nevertheless, there is an imperative need for rigorous empirical scrutiny of the effectiveness of hospital play interventions, in particular, using play activities to ease the psychological burden of hospitalized children. This study tested the effectiveness of play interventions to reduce anxiety and negative emotions in hospitalized children. A non-equivalent control group pre-test and post-test, between subjects design was conducted in the two largest acute-care public hospitals in Hong Kong. A total of 304 Chinese children (ages 3-12) admitted for treatments in these two hospitals were invited to participate in the study. Of the 304 paediatric patients, 154 received hospital play interventions and 150 received usual care.

Conditions

Anxiety

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Anxiety levels change from baseline at 2 days after admission between intervention and control group for children aged 3 - 7

  Anxiety levels of children aged between 3 and 7 were assessed by using the Visual Analogue Scale , which consists of a 10 cm horizontal line on a piece of card, with different facial expressions supplemented by the words 'I have no anxiety' at one end and 'I have so much anxiety' at the other. They were asked to respond to this scale at 2 days after admission.

  two days after admission

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Anxiety levels change from baseline at 2 days after admission between intervention and control group for children aged 8 - 12

  two days after admission

• baseline anxiety levels for children aged 3 - 7

  baseline

• baseline anxiety levels for children aged 8 -12

  baseline

• overall emotion behaviors for the 2-day period of hospitalization (CEMS)

  the 2-day period of hospitalization

Study Arms (2)

play intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

30 minutes of hospital play interventions

Other: Play intervention

control

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

usual care

Other: control

Interventions

Play intervention OTHER

participants received around 30 minutes of hospital play interventions each day, conducted by hospital play specialists. Such interventions consisted of structured and non-structured activities. All these activities were given at the patients' bedside, with or without parental supervision, either once or spreading over an hour, depending on the ward routine.

play intervention

control OTHER

Children received standard medical and nursing care, such as vital signs observation, pharmacological treatment and wound and pain management as a control treatment

control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 3 Years - 12 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• were Chinese children aged between 3 and 12,
• able to speak Cantonese
• required to stay in hospital for at least three consecutive days

You may not qualify if:

• children with identified cognitive and learning difficulties

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Hong Kong: lead

Related Publications (1)

• Li WHC, Chung JOK, Ho KY, Kwok BMC. Play interventions to reduce anxiety and negative emotions in hospitalized children. BMC Pediatr. 2016 Mar 11;16:36. doi: 10.1186/s12887-016-0570-5.

  PMID: 26969158 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Anxiety Disorders

Interventions

Play Therapy

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Mental Disorders

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Sensory Art Therapies; Complementary Therapies; Therapeutics; Psychotherapy; Behavioral Disciplines and Activities

Study Officials

• Ho Cheung, William LI, PhD

  The University of Hong Kong

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 17, 2016
• First Posted: January 27, 2016
• Study Start: November 1, 2012
• Primary Completion: October 1, 2013
• Study Completion: October 1, 2013
• Last Updated: January 27, 2016

Record last verified: 2016-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share