The Effect of Multisensory Stimulus Method Used During Immunisation on Pain and Physiological Parameters in Infants: A Randomised Controlled Study

The emergence of needle phobia in childhood often precipitates avoidance behaviors toward vaccinations (McLenon & Rogers, 2019). Mitigating vaccine-induced pain holds promise in alleviating healthcare avoidance inclinations (Komaroff & Forest, 2020). An expanding body of evidence substantiates the efficacy of non-pharmacological interventions in ameliorating acute procedural pain in neonates and infants (Aydın & İnal, 2019; Reece-Stremtan & Gray, 2016).

One such auspicious non-pharmacological approach to pain management is multisensory stimulation, also recognized as sensory saturation. Multisensory stimulation constitutes a non-pharmacological strategy employed to diminish infant pain during acute procedures. Grounded in gate control theory, it postulates that administering both a sweet taste and a spectrum of stimuli to infants may yield heightened analgesic effects (Bellini et al., 2012). The amalgamation of various interventions such as massage, auditory stimuli, olfactory cues, and eye contact via multisensory stimulation engages broader cortical regions and saturates sensory pathways, thereby attenuating nociceptive inputs (Zeraati et al., 2017).

A review of the literature underscores the efficacy of multisensory stimulation as a non-pharmacological modality to alleviate painful procedures in preterm neonates (Anand et al., 2011). Moreover, it demonstrates superior efficacy compared to single pain relief modalities in mitigating pain during venipuncture in infants (Fitri et al., 2020). Despite the demonstrated efficacy of multisensory stimulation as a straightforward, effective, and safe analgesic method during painful neonatal examinations, studies evaluating its effectiveness during vaccine administration are notably absent. Furthermore, scant research has explored the influence of the practitioner (whether mother, nurse, or physician) on the efficacy of this method.

Hypotheses : Babies who underwent the multi-sensory stimulation method; the Pain scale score is lower than the control group, the crying duration is shorter than the control group, the heart rate is lower than the control group, and the saturation (SPO2) is higher than the control group. In the group where the mother is the practitioner of the Multi-sensory stimulation method, compared to the group where the nurse is the practitioner; the pain scale score is low, the crying duration is low, the heart rate is low, saturation level (SPO2) is high.

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