The Association Between Problematic Media Use and Postoperative Pain Severity in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Tonsillectomy: An Observational Study

Parents of children aged 4-11 years who agree to participate will be enrolled (n=94). The data collection form includes sociodemographic characteristics of the child and family, media use habits of both the child and parents, parental attitudes toward screen exposure, and the Problematic Media Use Scale (PMUS). All children will undergo a detailed history, physical examination, and routine hematological and biochemical tests. Children with allergies, recent upper respiratory infections, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or those who have received NSAIDs within the past 24 hours will be excluded.

Tonsillectomy indications include recurrent tonsillitis and/or tonsillar hypertrophy. All patients will undergo bilateral tonsillectomy via classical extracapsular dissection under general anesthesia. Hemostasis will be achieved with bipolar cauterization and packing. Postoperatively, oral intake will be restricted for 4 hours, and all patients will receive identical analgesic management consisting solely of paracetamol (10 mg/kg) administered three times daily.

The Problematic Media Use Scale (PMUS) was developed by Domoff et al. in 2017 for children aged 4-11 years to assess problematic digital media use. The Turkish validation of both the long and short forms was conducted by Furuncu in 2019. Based on DSM-5 Internet Gaming Disorder criteria, the scale includes items scored on a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating more problematic use. The short form of PMUS will be used in this study.

Participants will be categorized into two groups based on PMUS scores. Pain intensity will be evaluated using the FLACC scale at the 1st, 6th, 12th, and 24th postoperative hours. The FLACC scale consists of five behavioral categories (Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability), scored 0-2 each, with total scores ranging from 0 to 10. A score of 0 indicates comfort, 1-3 mild discomfort, 4-6 moderate pain, and 7-10 severe pain or distress.

Sample size was calculated based on a Type I error of 0.05, power of 0.80, and an expected correlation coefficient of r = 0.30 (low-level association) between problematic media use and pain score. This yielded a required sample of 85 participants. Accounting for approximately 10% attrition, the study aims to enroll 94 children.