The effect of animal-assisted intervention on fear in children in the emergency department: A randomized controlled trial.

Aim: This study aimed to determine the effect of animal-assisted intervention on the fears of hospitalized children in the emergency department (ED).

Materials and methods: The randomized controlled trial was conducted between April and June 2023 in the Central Black Sea Region of Turkiye. The study included 70 children aged 5 to 7 years old (the study group was 35, and the control group was 35). The study and control groups were randomly assigned to strata using simple randomization. While goldfish were used for animal-assisted intervention in the study group, routine care was continued in the control group. The "Child Fear Scale" and "The Scale of Children's Fear of Nursing Interventions and Instruments Used in Hospital" were used as data collection tools.

Results: The mean score of the fear scale in the post-test scores of the study group children was significantly lower than the control group (p < 0.001). After the animal-assisted intervention, the mean fear scores of the children in the care study group toward nursing interventions and the materials used decreased significantly (p < 0.001). Furthermore, when the two groups were compared, the difference between the post-test scores was not significant (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Animal-assisted intervention was determined to be effective in decreasing the fear levels of the children in the study group.

Practice implications: During hospitalization in the emergency department, methods appropriate to the child's developmental level and animal-assisted interventions were found to be effective in reducing children's fear levels.