Clown intervention to reduce preoperative anxiety in children and parents: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

This study investigated whether a clown doctor intervention could reduce preoperative anxiety in children hospitalized for minor surgery and in their parents. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 77 children and 119 parents: the clown group consisted of 52 children accompanied in the preoperating room by their parents (n = 89) and two clowns while the comparison group consisted of children accompanied by the parents only. The clown intervention significantly reduced the children's preoperative anxiety: children benefited from the clown's presence and showed better adjustment than children in the comparison group. Mothers in Comparison Group showed higher anxiety.

Feeling happy and carefree: a qualitative study on the experiences of parents, medical clowns and healthcare professionals with medical clowns

“…The presence of a clown has been found to reduce the child’s anxiety (Dionigi, Sangiorgi, & Flangini, 2014; Felluga et al, 2016; Goldberg et al, 2014; Kocherov et al, 2016; Meiri, Ankri, Hamad-Saied, Konopnicki, & Pillar, 2016; Messina et al, 2014; Vagnoli, Caprilli, & Messeri, 2010; Vagnoli, Caprilli, Robiglio, & Messeri, 2005; Weintraub et al, 2014) and feelings of boredom, loneliness and sadness (Finlay, Baverstock, & Lenton, 2014; Mansson, Elfving, Petersson, Wahl, & Tunell, 2013; Meiri et al, 2016). Also, a few studies showed that a clown intervention is able to reduce anxiety in parents (Agostini et al, 2014; Fernandes & Arriaga, 2010; Wolyniez et al, 2013).…”

Palhaços: uma revisão acerca do uso dessa máscara no ambiente hospitalarPayasos: una revisiónsobre el uso de esa máscara en el ambiente hospitalario

“…It is considered that as much the illness as the internment configure stress generating situations, fear and anxiety, context on which the clowns interventions are based 4,6,[9][10][11][12][13] .Therefore, we propose a short discussion on the physiology of stress for understanding the effect of obtaining better responses to the patients' and companions treatments, the ones who were in contact with the clowns 4,6,14,15 .…”

“…Common signs of these reactions to stress are alterations of the pulse, breathing frequency and skin temperature, that in some studies are used as parameters for evaluation of emotional well-being 4,6,14 . Like this, interventions that aim to reduce the stress levels provoked by the illness and by the internment, for clinical treatment, surgical procedure, anaesthetic 13 or sedative 16 , can contribute to avoid the onset of complications and associated pathologies, promoting even the patients response to the treatment 10,12 .…”

“…Although there is no age group predilection for the stress inherent to the hospital enviroment, the clowns' work has been associated mainly to children 10,12,17,[27][28][29]34 , reaching only in a secondary way the adults, companions or professionals who work in the hospital 3,9,25,35 .…”

“…The art is not detached, but layered upon the lived reality, promoting the experimentation of a cascade of memories, sensations and feelings that, mediated by the cognitive elaboration, they allow another symbolic construction, a renewed interpretation of life. 26 ; aid in recovery 10,12,28,29,30 ; peacefulness to the mothers in the pediatric patients' case; improvement of the professionals' and students relationship with the pacients 31,32 and even of the patients with one another 26 .…”