Author/Authors :
Borji, Milad Department of Nursing - Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery - Ilam University of Medical Science, Ilam , Taghinejad, Hamid Department of Nursing - Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery - Ilam University of Medical Science, Ilam , Sedmohamadi, Reza Student Research Committee - Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam
Abstract :
Background: Frequent experience of pain and anxiety can cause neuro-developmental disorders, reduced learning ability, and
behavioral problems in children.
Objectives: For this reason, the present study aimed at comparing the effects of drawing pictures and blowing up balloons on the
anxiety and pain intensity arising from diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) immunization (triple vaccine) in school-aged children.
Methods: The present study was a quasi-experimental research conducted on children, who had been referred to Ilam clinics for
DPT immunization during year 2016. 120 children, who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled in this study. They were randomly
divided to three groups, namely experimental group A (drawing pictures before immunization up to its completion), experimental
groupB(inflating balloons beforeimmunizationupto its completion), andcontrolgroupC(routine care group). The data collection
instruments in this study included numeric pain rating scale, behavioral scale of pain responses (for the assessment of the child’s
pain), Pieri’s pictorial anxiety scale, and self-rating scale of clinical phobias (for the assessment of the child’s anxiety). The SPSS
version 16 (IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., USA) was used to analyze the data through descriptive statistics.
Results: The results showed that no statistically significant differences were observed in demographic characteristics of children
under the study among the groups (P < 0.05). The results also showed that the practice of distraction technique via drawing pictures
reduced the children’s anxiety and pain caused by the vaccine. However, only anxiety decreased in the group that experienced
the distraction method through inflating balloons. Additionally, the implementation of this technique did not have a statistically
significant effect on the level of perceived pain in patients that inflated balloons (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: The implementation of these non-pharmacological and low-cost distraction techniques is suggested to be incorporated
in care and treatment routines, particularly in clinical setting. It is also recommended that the personnel receive training in
this field and that research be conducted to determine the willingness of health care workers to perform distraction techniques
and eliminate the existing barriers.
Keywords :
Triple Vaccine , Pain , Anxiety , Distraction