A combined intervention of art therapy and clown visits to reduce preoperative anxiety in children

Alberto Dionigi and Paola Gremigni

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2017, vol. 26, issue 5-6, 632-640

Abstract: Aims and objectives To test whether a combined intervention of art therapy and clown visits could enhance the efficacy of oral medication in reducing children's anxiety at parental separation prior to induction of anaesthesia. Background Approximately 50% of children undergoing surgery report high anxiety at anaesthesia induction. Complementary therapies have been used to decrease children's anxiety, but no study has evaluated the efficacy of a combination of such therapies. Design This is an observational study, which involved allocating different interventions to two groups and measuring their anxiety at two time points. Methods This study assigned 78 children (aged 3–11 years) undergoing general anaesthesia for surgery to two conditions. The control group underwent general anaesthesia following standard practice, and the intervention group received an intervention of integrated art therapy and clown visits upon their arrival at the hospital and throughout their time in the preoperating room. Each child in both groups received 0·5 mg/kg oral midazolam 30 minutes before surgery and had a parent present throughout their time in the preoperating room. Each child's anxiety was evaluated twice using the Modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale: at baseline and at separation from parents. Repeated measures anova was used to test for differences between the time points and the two groups. Results Children in the intervention group showed a significant (p

Date: 2017
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