Effectiveness of cartoon video as a distraction strategy on pain perception during venepuncture among children

Abstract

Pain is often a subjective sensation having physiological, psychological and emotional implications for an individual. In a hospital setting, children usually perceive unpredictable pain which is often procedure related that can impact both emotionally and psychologically. Perception of pain varies with multiple factors such as age, gender, intellectual level, personality, parental care and previous experience of painful procedure/ suppression of pain using pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic measures. Our study aimed to assess the effectiveness of animated cartoons as a distraction strategy to reduce behavioral response to pain perception among children undergoing venepuncture and to assess and compare pain perception in children with and without cartoon distraction. We had total of 60 children participated in the study group, we found that children who were distracted perceived less pain (p < 0.001), also the number of attempts required to do venepuncture also reduced significantly (p < 0.001). We concluded that, distraction technique is a simple yet effective tool in alleviating pain during venepuncture in preschool children. This technique can help in reduction of anxiety among children.