In adolescents, does using biofeedback mediated relaxation techniques during vaccination, compared to standard vaccination process, reduce fear, pain and anxiety associated with school-based vaccination.

This study aimed to reduce pain, fear and anxiety associated with school-based vaccination by using an iPad ‘app’ called Brighthearts. The BrightHearts app was developed at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, NSW, for teaching children relaxation techniques to deal with pain. Year 8 students participated in the study from October 2015 to March 2016, during their school’s scheduled vaccination day. Only those students whose parents had given written consent were eligible to take part. Participating students were randomly allocated to use the BrightHearts app while receiving their vaccinations or to follow usual vaccination procedure (i.e. not using an iPad ‘app’ while being vaccinated). Both groups completed a questionnaire after they had been vaccinated. 176 students from three Perth schools completed the study. Overall we found that there was no difference in the levels of pain, fear and anxiety that were reported by the two different groups. However, 60% of the students that used the BrightHearts app said that it helped them during their vaccinations and 73% would like to use it again. We also conducted six interviews with members of the immunisation team, school health nurses and school teachers who were involved in the vaccination days. Almost all reported that they had noticed that the students using the BrightHearts app were more focused and less concerned about their vaccinations. They were supportive of the app being used to help students with their vaccinations.