Evaluations of Psychological Preparation for Children Undergoing Endoscopy

Abstract

We provided psychological preparation to children who were hospitalized for endoscopy. We performed a multifaceted evaluation of the effects of the preparation to identify appropriate methods for individual children. The subjects were 20 children, ages 4 to 15 years (average 9.9 years), who were divided into 3 groups according to the preparation methods. From our study, we suggest that it is important to discuss the preparation methods for medical procedures using methods appropriate to the level of cognitive development of each individual child.

A private affair: children's experiences prior to colonoscopy

“…Parents feel that preparation is an effective way to enhance understanding and reduce stress and anxiety in children (Thomson , Tanaka et al . ).…”

“…Despite studies that have described how children are prepared in advance of a colonoscopy in terms of the bowel cleansing procedure (Tanaka et al . ), we are not aware of previous studies that have focused on the child's experiences prior to colonoscopy.…”

“…Tanaka et al . () found that psychological preparation before an endoscopy, including therapeutic play, was required to reduce fear, misunderstandings and other forms of psychological stress. Parents feel that preparation is an effective way to enhance understanding and reduce stress and anxiety in children (Thomson , Tanaka et al .…”

The effectiveness of age‐appropriate pre‐operative information session on the anxiety level of school‐age children undergoing elective surgery in Jordan

“…The first group received the guidebook, the second group had an opportunity to ask questions while reading the guidebook with their parents and the hospital play specialist, and the third one received an explanation with the guidebook and played with the dolls and medical instruments. Children of the third group had better understanding about the procedure and displayed more encouragement than children in the other 2 groups (Tanaka et al, ).…”

Bowel Cleansing Prior to Pediatric Colonoscopy: The Children´s and Parent’s Perspective

“…They received information about PEG intake but it was perhaps insufficient and this could contribute to the negative experiences of children. It is wellknown that children need to be well-prepared psychologically to minimise stress and anxiety [25], however in this study according of the child and parents rapport they were only informed about the procedure and not really prepared on it. Children did not ask many questions which could mislead staff to interpret that everything was fine and that both the child and parent were ready for procedure.…”