Mitigating Children’s Pain and Anxiety during Blood Draw Using Social Robots

Electronics

EstherM. van der Roest¹  WouterM. Tiel Groenestege¹  DanielF. Preciado²  EllyA. Konijn²  Tom Monshouwer³  Koen Smit³  Nigel van Putten³  MatthijsH. J. Smakman³  Coen Schoof³  Thymen Trip³  Lotte Buser³ 

[1] Central Diagnostic Laboratory, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands;Department of Communication Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands;Institute for Information and Communication Technology, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 15, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands;

关键词: social robot;    pain;    anxiety;    distraction;    blood draw;    children;   

DOI  :  10.3390/electronics10101211

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Young pediatric patients who undergo venipuncture or capillary blood sampling often experience high levels of pain and anxiety. This often results in distressed young patients and their parents, increased treatment times, and a higher workload for healthcare professionals. Social robots are a new and promising tool to mitigate children’s pain and anxiety. This study aims to purposefully design and test a social robot for mitigating stress and anxiety during blood draw of children. We first programmed a social robot based on the requirements expressed by experienced healthcare professionals during focus group sessions. Next, we designed a randomized controlled experiment in which the social robot was applied as a distraction method to measure its capacity to mitigate pain and anxiety in children during blood draw in a children’s hospital setting. Children who interacted with the robot showed significantly lower levels of anxiety before actual blood collection, compared to children who received regular medical treatment. Children in the middle classes of primary school (aged 6–9) seemed especially sensitive to the robot’s ability to mitigate pain and anxiety before blood draw. Children’s parents overall expressed strong positive attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of the social robot for mitigating pain and anxiety. The results of this study demonstrate that social robots can be considered a new and effective tool for lowering children’s anxiety prior to the distressing medical procedure of blood collection.

【 授权许可】

Unknown