Oh Natasha, Parrish Nina, Lee In Woo, Temple Sasha, Perkins Oliver, Kokkinakis Michail
Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK.
Paediatric Orthopaedic Department, Evelina London Children's Hospital, London SE1 7EH, UK.
Children (Basel). 2023 Aug 18;10(8):1409. doi: 10.3390/children10081409.
The hospital environment can be a stressful environment for paediatric patients and their parents, which is often characterised by heightened levels of pain and anxiety. To address these challenges, many innovative intervention methods has been explored. For example, immersive virtual reality (VR) headsets as a distraction method has become an increasingly popular intervention in recent years. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of VR using 'Rescape DR.VR Junior' in reducing pain, anxiety, and enhancing the overall hospital experience for paediatric orthopaedic patients and their parents. A total of 64 patients aged 4-18 years were included in this study, which utilised a control group (interacting with a play specialist) and a VR intervention group (including pre-operative patients and fracture clinic patients). Anxiety and pain levels were measured using a 10-point Likert scale before and after the intervention, and validated questionnaires were used to assess parental anxiety and overall hospital experience. The results indicated that VR intervention significantly reduced patient and parental anxiety both before surgery and in the fracture clinic setting ( < 0.5). However, no significant reduction in pain scores was observed in either environments. Comparatively, VR intervention was found to be comparable to traditional play methods in terms of reducing anxiety in the pre-operative environment. All patients and parents agreed that the use of VR distraction methods significantly improved their hospital experience. In conclusion, VR is an effective method for reducing child and parental anxiety and enhancing the hospital experience and can be used alone or in conjunction with a play specialist.
医院环境对儿科患者及其父母来说可能是一个充满压力的环境，其特点通常是疼痛和焦虑程度加剧。为应对这些挑战，人们探索了许多创新的干预方法。例如，沉浸式虚拟现实（VR）头戴设备作为一种分散注意力的方法，近年来已成为越来越受欢迎的干预手段。本研究旨在评估使用“Rescape DR.VR Junior”的VR在减轻疼痛、焦虑以及提升儿科骨科患者及其父母的整体医院体验方面的有效性。本研究共纳入了64名4至18岁的患者，采用了一个对照组（与游戏专家互动）和一个VR干预组（包括术前患者和骨折诊所患者）。在干预前后，使用10分制李克特量表测量焦虑和疼痛水平，并使用经过验证的问卷来评估父母的焦虑和整体医院体验。结果表明，VR干预在手术前和骨折诊所环境中均显著降低了患者和父母的焦虑（<0.5）。然而，在这两种环境中均未观察到疼痛评分有显著降低。相比之下，在术前环境中，发现VR干预在减轻焦虑方面与传统游戏方法相当。所有患者和父母都认为使用VR分散注意力的方法显著改善了他们的医院体验。总之，VR是一种减轻儿童和父母焦虑以及提升医院体验的有效方法，可单独使用或与游戏专家联合使用。
