Effect of interactive, multimedia-based home-initiated education on preoperative anxiety inchildren and their parents: a single-center randomized controlled trial

• Published in: BMC anesthesiology 2023-03, Vol.23 (1), p.95-95, Article 95
• Main Authors: Hou, Huiyan, Li, Xie, Song, Yun'an, Ji, Yingying, Sun, Menglian, Wang, Dan, Jiao, Jiali, Qu, Jifang, Gu, Hongbin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anesthesia; Anesthesiologists; Anxiety; Anxiety - prevention & control; Child; Children; Clinics; Comparative analysis; Compliance; Cooperation; Education; Guardians; Health aspects; Humans; Interactive; Intervention; Medical research; Multimedia-based; Ophthalmology; Pain management; Parenting; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - education; Patient Education as Topic; Pediatric anesthesia; Pediatrics; Preoperative anxiety; Preoperative Care - methods; Prospective Studies; Researchers; Statistical analysis; Strabismus; Strabismus - surgery; Surgery; Vision disorders in children
• ISSN: 1471-2253; 1471-2253
• DOI: 10.1186/s12871-023-02055-7

Anesthesiologists need to appreciate the impact of preoperative anxiety in children. The present study aimed to explore whether interactive multimedia-based home-initiated interventions could effectively relieve preoperative anxiety in pediatric patients. In this prospective study, we compared preoperative anxiety between two groups of children aged 4-9 years. Children in the control group received a question-and-answer (Q&A) introduction, and children in the intervention group received multimedia-based home-initiated preoperative education using comic booklets, videos, and coloring game books. Differences in anxiety between the two groups were evaluated by the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale-Short Form (mYPAS-SF) at four time points: in the ophthalmology outpatient clinic before intervention as the baseline (T0); in the preoperative waiting area (T1); at the time of separating from their parents and moving to the operating room (T2); and at the time of anesthesia induction (T3). Parental anxiety was assessed by the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at T0 and T2. Other related information was collected by questionnaire. Eighty-four children who underwent pediatric strabismus in our center between November 2020 and July 2021 were included in this study. An intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was performed on data from 78 enrolled children. Children in the intervention group exhibited lower m-YPAS-SF scores at T1, T2, and T3 than those in the control group (all p