A randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a therapeutic play intervention on outcomes of children undergoing inpatient elective surgery: study protocol
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Hong Gu He1, Lixia Zhu, Ho Cheung William Li
1Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Insights
This study protocol outlines a trial to assess if therapeutic play reduces anxiety and pain in children undergoing surgery. The intervention aims to improve the well-being of both children and their parents during the perioperative period.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Surgery
- Child Psychology
- Healthcare Intervention Studies
Background:
- Children undergoing surgery frequently experience significant perioperative anxiety, negative emotional responses, and postoperative pain.
- While therapeutic play interventions show promise for anxiety reduction, research on their impact on children undergoing major elective surgery is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of a therapeutic play intervention in reducing perioperative anxiety, negative emotional manifestations, and postoperative pain in children undergoing inpatient elective surgery.
- To assess the impact of therapeutic play on parental perioperative anxiety.
- To establish a clinically effective method for preparing pediatric surgical patients and their families for surgery.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial with repeated measures design is proposed.
- 106 pairs of children (aged 6-14) and their parents undergoing elective surgery will be recruited.
- Participants will be randomized to a control group (routine care) or an experimental group (therapeutic play intervention plus routine care).
- Data on children's anxiety, emotional state, pain, and parental anxiety will be collected at baseline, on surgery day, and 24 hours post-surgery.
Main Results:
- This section is not applicable as the abstract describes a study protocol and not results.
Conclusions:
- The study aims to identify a practical and effective approach to mitigate perioperative anxiety in pediatric surgical patients and their parents.
- Reduced anxiety is hypothesized to decrease postoperative pain, thereby enhancing the overall physical and psychological well-being of children.
- The findings are expected to inform clinical practice for pediatric surgical preparation.
Aim:
To report a trial protocol to determine if a therapeutic play intervention leads to significant reduction in perioperative anxiety, negative emotional manifestations and postoperative pain of children undergoing inpatient elective surgery and in their parents' perioperative anxiety.
Background:
Children undergoing surgery often experience anxiety, exhibit negative emotional manifestations pre-operatively and postoperative pain. Previous studies report that therapeutic play intervention has positive effects on anxiety reduction, while few studies have examined the effects of such intervention on children undergoing major elective surgery.
Design:
Randomized controlled trial with repeated measures is proposed.
Methods:
This study will recruit 106 pairs of 6-14-year-old children undergoing elective surgery in a Singaporean public hospital and their parents (protocol approved in October 2011). Eligible participants will be randomly allocated to either a control group (receiving routine care) or an experimental group (receiving 1-hour therapeutic play intervention plus routine care). Outcome measures include children's anxiety, emotional manifestation and postoperative pain, their parents' anxiety and process evaluation. Data will be collected at baseline (3-7 days before the operation), on the day of surgery and around 24 hours after the surgery.
Discussion:
This study will identify a clinically useful and potentially effective approach to prepare children for surgery by reducing anxiety of both children and their parents during the perioperative period. The reduction of anxiety may lead to reduction of postoperative pain, which will eventually improve the physical and psychological well-being of children. This study was funded by the National Medical Research Council in Singapore.