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The Art of Waiting: Evaluation of an Interactive Media Experience in a Children's Hospital Clinic Waiting Space

Completed
Conditions
Anxiety
Interventions
Other: ScreenPlay
Registration Number
NCT01909726
Lead Sponsor
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that providing low-intensity opportunities for interactive play can improve the waiting and overall clinic experiences of children. This study evaluates an innovative, interactive system called ScreenPlay designed to realize the intentions of the "Healing Environment" in the waiting space of a paediatric hospital.

Detailed Description

Existing entertainment and distraction options (e.g. toys, video games) meet neither organizational standards nor families' needs with respect to accessibility and infection control. Additionally, they do not provide the types of positive experiences (e.g. calm, low intensity) that are most desirable for children awaiting treatment.

The goal of this research is to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of ScreenPlay, a technology that enables users to create or manipulate animations on a screen/projection, and to provide an evidence-informed model for the design of optimal paediatric waiting spaces. A blinded, clustered, parallel randomized controlled trial applying objective outcome measures and qualitative methods will be used to compare children allocated to one of three waiting conditions at a large urban rehabilitation hospital: (a) no media (standard care), (b) passive media (a silent nature video), or (c) interactive media (ScreenPlay). This study will answer the questions:

Can Interactive Media (i.e. ScreenPlay):

1. reduce state anxiety in children/youth attending an outpatient clinic? and,

2. improve child, parent, and staff satisfaction with the clinic experience?

We hypothesize that:

1. Decreases in state anxiety will be greater for children exposed to ScreenPlay for 10 minutes than for those exposed to passive (i.e. a nature video) or no media (i.e. standard care/control). The decrease in state anxiety associated with ScreenPlay will be \>5 points on the normalized 100 point State Anxiety Scale.

2. ScreenPlay will generate more movement/activity on the floor (i.e. an indicator of active engagement with the system) than the passive media or control conditions as measured via contact floor sensors.

3. The waiting and overall clinic experience of children with diverse mobility, parents, and staff will be perceived more positively when exposed to ScreenPlay as compared to passive media or control conditions.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
310
Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Study Design
Not specified
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Interactive mediaScreenPlayScreenPlay
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
State Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAIBaseline, after 10 minutes of exposure to intervention, and immediately following appointment.

The STAI is used to capture apprehension, tension, nervousness, and worry.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Faces Pain Scale Revised, Faces-RImmediately following medical/therapeutic intervention.

Faces-R is used to capture self-reported pain. The scale is composed of 6 gender neutral faces showing increasing levels pain/hurt from "no pain" to "most pain possible"

Modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale, mYPASBaseline, after 10 minutes of exposure to intervention, and immediately following appointment.

The mYPAS observes activity, vocalizations, emotion expressivity, state of arousal, and use of parents, to ascertain children's anxiety state.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

🇨🇦

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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