Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Serious Games
Date Submitted: Nov 19, 2021
Date Accepted: May 13, 2022
Virtual Reality on pediatric pain and fear during procedures involving needles: a systematic Review and Meta-analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Virtual reality (VR) is used as a distraction measure during painful clinical procedures.
Objective:
The objective of the study was to collect and analyze the evidence regarding the effectiveness of VR as a tool to distract children from pain and fear during needle procedures, as compared to standard techniques.
Methods:
A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed. Databases included: PubMed, the Web of Science, Scopus, Psycinfo, Cinahl, and Cochrane. Among 665 unique search results, publications were included if they used VR as a distraction measure and if they evaluated the pain generated by a needle procedure. For the systematic review, the studies were analyzed by using the CASPe guide and Jadad scale. In the meta-analysis, the effect size of the studies was analyzed based on the results for pain and fear in children.
Results:
A total of 25 studies were included in this systematic review; most of them had reported low methodological quality. The study sample cohorts ranged from a minimum of 14 participants to a maximum of 220 individuals. The global effect of using VR as a distraction measure had significantly reduced pain in children in the experimental groups (IV = −2.37, 95% CI [−3.20, −1.54]; Z = 5.58; p <.001) and fear (IV = −1.26, 95% CI [−1.89, −0.63]; Z = 3.92; p <.001)
Conclusions:
The use of VR as a distraction measure is effective in reducing pain and fear in children during procedures involving needles. Clinical Trial: Osf.io/cd8nr
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.