A study to evaluate the effectiveness of coloring picture book in reducing hospitalization anxiety of hospitalized children A Randomized Controlled Trial

The hospital is a new environment for children where they need to adapt during their treatment process. The impact of hospitalization on preschool children has both short-term and long-term impacts which may impair the child’s development and healing process. The challenges faced by most of the sick during hospitalization include adjusting to the environment and people who care for them, including dealing with separation problems, and nursing procedures and medicines they receive. These conditions make children afraid and anxious and it affects the length of hospital stay, exacerbate the child’s condition, and can even cause death in the child. Therefore, it is important to minimize the impact of hospitalization. One of the interventions to reduce anxiety in hospitalized children is Play Therapy. Many studies have shown that coloring is effective in reducing anxiety due to hospitalization of preschool children. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of coloring picture books in reducing hospitalization anxiety of children admitted to pediatric ward.

H1- There will be a significant decrease in the hospitalization anxiety score of the experimental group as compared to the control group.