Preoperative interview mode with Child Life in the management of preschool children′s anxiety

Objective To explore the effect of preoperative visit with Child Life mode in the management of preschool children′s anxiety. Methods A total of 80 cases of children of pre-school age who were operated from September 2018 to February 2019 were selected by cluster sampling method. The children from September to November 2018 who were given the traditional mode of preoperative visit were set as the control group. Children from December 2018 to February 2019 who were given preoperative visit with Child Life mode were set as the experimental group. The Modified Yale Perioperative Anxiety Scale (m-YPAS) scores, Induction Compliance Checklist (ICC) scores and Pediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium (PAED) scores were compared between the two groups at 4 different perioperative time points (6 hours after admission, waiting for surgery, induction of anesthesia, and 6 hours after surgery). Results Totally three patients were suspended from the study due to surgery. A total of 77 children were studied, 38 in the experimental group and 39 in the control group. The score of m-YPAS in the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group(17.57±16.64 vs. 42.04±27.46, t value was 3.85, P 0.05) and 6 hours after surgery(35.61±15.70 vs. 41.81±17.97, t value was 1.37, P>0.05). Compare with the control group the score of ICC in the experimental group was significantly decreased (1.40±1.39 vs. 3.78±2.60, t value was 4.88, P 0.05). Conclusions Compared with the traditional preoperative visit mode, the preoperative visit mode of Child Life can effectively relieve the anxiety of preschool children undergoing general anesthesia surgery while they are waiting for surgery and during anesthesia induction, and can improve the degree of cooperation during anesthesia induction. Key words: Child Life; Preoperative interview; Preschool child; Anxiety