The Effect of Using Masks With Cartoon Heroes on Treatment Compliance and Parental Satisfaction in Inhaler Therapy Applications in Children

Respiratory diseases are among the most common diseases in childhood and are among the most important causes of infectious disease-related mortality and morbidity worldwide. Approximately 1 in 3 children have a lower respiratory tract infection in the first year of life. Respiratory tract infections are more common in developing countries and have a worse prognosis. According to World Health Organization data, respiratory tract infections constitute 13% of the causes of mortality in children under 5 years of age. Respiratory tract diseases are frequently seen during seasonal transitions in childhood and are caused by viral or bacterial agents. Treatment of respiratory tract diseases differs as outpatient or inpatient depending on the agent and the condition of the child. In addition to antibiotherapy, relaxing and supportive treatments are also included in the treatment. These include analgesics, antipyretics, decongestants, and antihistamines. These treatments are administered orally, parenterally, or inhaled. In inhaler treatment, medication is given by placing it into a pediatric mask with a reservoir. This treatment method is boring, frightening, and anxiety-inducing for the pediatric age group and makes it difficult to comply with the treatment. Various methods are being tried to facilitate compliance with treatment in children. One of these methods is play-based treatment activities.

Play is a form of learning that facilitates children's adaptation to the outside world by providing them with new experiences, skills, and social responsibility, and enables them to communicate by exploring their environment. Play is defined by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as the right of every child that contributes to the development of the child. In the literature, it is reported that play is effective in reducing the anxiety and fear of hospitalized children and is necessary to provide holistic and quality care. It has also been reported that it does not benefit their recovery by relaxing them both physically and emotionally.

Games are categorized under four headings according to their purpose: entertaining and distracting games, games that support the development of cognitive, social, and sensorimotor skills, games that teach right and wrong, provide socialization, make people aware of and accept their biological existence as men or women, and therapeutic games to relieve anxiety and tension. Games can be used in clinics as healing practices (therapeutic practices). Although therapeutic play and play therapy are used interchangeably, they are conceptually and practically quite different. The spontaneous creation of activities using toys without predetermined goals is referred to as play therapy.

Therapeutic play that activates physiological functions is used in cases where the child exhibits regressive behavior, drama therapeutic play that allows emotional discharge, and educational/creative therapeutic play is used to prepare children for procedures.

There are three types of therapeutic play: