Effects of Distraction on Pain, Fear, and Distress During Venous Port Access and Venipuncture in Children and Adolescents With Cancer

Abstract

This study evaluates the effect of self-selected distracters (ie, bubbles, I Spy: Super Challenger book, music table, virtual reality glasses, or handheld video games) on pain, fear, and distress in 50 children and adolescents with cancer, ages 5 to 18, with port access or venipuncture. Using an intervention-comparison group design, participants were randomized to the comparison group (n = 28) to receive standard care or intervention group (n = 22) to receive distraction plus standard care. All participants rated their pain and fear, parents rated participant fear, and the nurse rated participant fear and distress at 3 points in time: before, during, and after port access or venipuncture. Results show that self-reported pain and fear were significantly correlated (P = .01) within treatment groups but not significantly different between groups. Intervention participants demonstrated significantly less fear (P <.001) and distress (P = .03) as rated by the nurse and approached significantly less fear (P = .07) as rated by the parent. All intervention parents said the needlestick was better because of the distracter. The authors conclude that distraction has the potential to reduce fear and distress during port access and venipuncture.

Videogame playing as distraction technique in course of venipuncture

“…only the study by WindichBiermeier et al approached these three items, using both active (soap bubbles, game Boy®, interactive books) and passive (audio- books, Virtual reality glasses) distracters. these authors stated that distraction itself is efficient in reducing pain, but they weren't able to rate single distracters' efficacy 28 . our data show that there is no difference in self-reported pain when adding a videogame distraction technique to eMlA cream.…”

Distraction methods for pain relief of cancer children submitted to painful procedures: systematic review

“…Involving the family during care is critical. Studies have shown that parents are able to play an active role in supporting and training their children during the procedure 13 , fact that is confirmed by other studies which have also counted on parents' role during intervention and/or during evaluation 12,[14][15][16][17][18][19]21 . The study working with party blower 18,19 , has also effectively incorporated parents in the intervention process, even evaluating their distress during procedure 19 .…”

“…One should also consider that some studies have reported that topic local anesthetics would be used at puncture site, which could interfere with results 12,13,15 . Still about virtual reality, it is inferred from the literature the need for further studies about the application of this technology taking into consideration its cost-effectiveness ratio 15 .…”

PainDroid: an android-based virtual reality application for pain assessment

“… The majority of the research efforts have focused on clinic-based applications running on PC-based platforms [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30], with only a limited number of studies paying attention to the need for mobile pain assessment. In fact, it is surprising that very few (if any) have been 6 built and ported to mobile platforms.…”