Three Distraction Techniques for Pain and Anxiety in Children During Allergy Skin Prick Testing

Summary

This randomized controlled trial compared three distraction techniques-animated cartoons, DistrACTION® Cards, and interactive video games-with standard care for reducing procedural pain and anxiety in children aged 6-10 years undergoing allergy skin prick testing. A total of 161 children were randomly assigned to four groups. Pain was rated by the child, a parent, and the researcher with the Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale during and after the procedure, and anxiety was rated by the parent and the researcher with the Children's Fear Scale before, during, and after the procedure.

Conditions

• Procedural Pain
• Procedural Anxiety

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Animated cartoon distraction

Children watched a self-selected, age-appropriate animated cartoon on a tablet computer during the skin prick test.

BEHAVIORAL

Distraction card intervention

Children viewed DistrACTION® Cards and answered goal-directed visual-search questions asked by the researcher during the skin prick test.

BEHAVIORAL

Interactive video game distraction

Children played a self-selected interactive video game on a tablet with the non-tested arm during the skin prick test.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Bakirkoy Dr. Sadi Konuk Research and Training Hospital

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Istanbul University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Leyla Erdim · Bakirkoy Dr. Sadi Konuk Research and Training Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

10 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-11-07

Primary Completion

2020-01-12

Completion

2020-01-21

Countries

• Turkey (Türkiye)

Study Locations