Virtual reality simulations to alleviate fear and anxiety in children awaiting MRI: a small-scale randomized controlled trial.
Anxiety
MRI
Paediatrics
Stress
Virtual reality
Journal
Journal of clinical monitoring and computing
ISSN: 1573-2614
Titre abrégé: J Clin Monit Comput
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 9806357
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 Jul 2024
01 Jul 2024
Historique:
received:
14
04
2024
accepted:
06
06
2024
medline:
2
7
2024
pubmed:
2
7
2024
entrez:
2
7
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Up to 75% of paediatric patients experience anxiety and distress before undergoing new medical procedures. Virtual reality is an interesting avenue for alleviating the stress and fear of paediatric patients due to its ability to completely immerse the child in the virtual world and thus expose them to the sights and sounds of an MRI before undergoing the exam. We aimed to explore the impact of virtual reality exposure on reducing fear and anxiety in paediatric patients scheduled to undergo an MRI. We hypothesised that patient who had undergone VR exposure before the MRI would experience lower levels of fear and anxiety and subsequently have a higher MRI success rate. We conducted a prospective randomized control trial in a tertiary paediatric hospital over three weeks. Inclusion criteria comprised children aged 4 to 14 undergoing MRI without medical contraindications for VR use. Thirty patients (16 in VR, 14 in control) were included in the study. The VR room, created in-house by a researcher, that the VR group experienced, simulated MRI room with typical sounds for up to 5 min before their actual MRI. Fear and anxiety were measured using the FACES scale before and after MRI for the control group as well as after VR exposure for the VR group. The VR group exhibited a significant reduction in anxiety post-VR exposure regarding the upcoming MRI (p = 0.009). There was no significant difference with regards to fear and anxiety between the VR and control groups before or after the MRI exam. There was no significant difference between the MRI exam success rates. VR exposure effectively reduces pre-MRI anxiety in paediatric patients who are about to undergo the exam, this is important as it alleviates the psychological burden on the child. This research is in line with previous findings, showing the validity of VR as a method of reducing pre-procedural paediatric anxiety and suggesting that complex VR experiences may not be necessary to have a significant impact. There is, however, a need for further investigation in this field using larger and MRI-naïve groups of patients.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38954169
doi: 10.1007/s10877-024-01188-5
pii: 10.1007/s10877-024-01188-5
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
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