1. The child's perspective on discomfort during medical research procedures: a descriptive study.
- Author
-
Staphorst MS, Benninga MA, Bisschoff M, Bon I, Busschbach JJV, Diederen K, van Goudoever JB, Haarman EG, Hunfeld JAM, Jaddoe VVW, de Jong KJM, de Jongste JC, Kindermann A, Königs M, Oosterlaan J, Passchier J, Pijnenburg MW, Reneman L, Ridder L, Tamminga HG, Tiemeier HW, Timman R, and van de Vathorst S
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Attention, Boredom, Child, Cross-Sectional Studies, Fatigue, Female, Humans, Male, Personality, Research Design, Self Report, Stress, Psychological, Anxiety, Attitude, Biomedical Research, Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures psychology, Fear, Pain
- Abstract
Objective: The evaluation of discomfort in paediatric research is scarcely evidence-based. In this study, we make a start in describing children's self-reported discomfort during common medical research procedures and compare this with discomfort during dental check-ups which can be considered as a reference level of a 'minimal discomfort' medical procedure. We exploratory study whether there are associations between age, anxiety-proneness, gender, medical condition, previous experiences and discomfort. We also describe children's suggestions for reducing discomfort., Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study., Setting: Paediatric research at three academic hospitals., Patients: 357 children with and without illnesses (8-18 years, mean=10.6 years) were enrolled: 307 from paediatric research studies and 50 from dental care., Main Outcome Measures: We measured various generic forms of discomfort (nervousness, annoyance, pain, fright, boredom, tiredness) due to six common research procedures: buccal swabs, MRI scans, pulmonary function tests, skin prick tests, ultrasound imaging and venepunctures., Results: Most children reported limited discomfort during the research procedures (means: 1-2.6 on a scale from 1 to 5). Compared with dental check-ups, buccal swab tests, skin prick tests and ultrasound imaging were less discomforting, while MRI scans, venepunctures and pulmonary function tests caused a similar degree of discomfort. 60.3% of the children suggested providing distraction by showing movies to reduce discomfort. The exploratory analyses suggested a positive association between anxiety-proneness and discomfort., Conclusions: The findings of this study support the acceptability of participation of children in the studied research procedures, which stimulates evidence-based research practice. Furthermore, the present study can be considered as a first step in providing benchmarks for discomfort of procedures in paediatric research., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF