Medical Clowns for Pediatric Blood Draw

Status unconfirmed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Anxiety State, Pain, Stress

In brief

The research objective of this proposed clinical trial is to determine the efficacy of a medical clowning intervention for pediatric patients undergoing venipuncture. Efficacy is defined in terms of decreasing anxiety, pain, and crying duration, and increasing the pace and ease of the procedure. The study population includes pediatric patients between the ages of 3 - 11 years who must undergo venipuncture at the LAC + USC Outpatient Clinic. The subjects will be randomized into two groups. The control subjects will receive no intervention during blood draw, while the intervention subjects will receive the medical clown intervention during blood draw. The clowns will interact with one patient at a time, engaging in play with the patient and caretakers during all parts of the procedure. Duration of crying and the duration of the entire procedure, the patient's level of pain and anxiety, the caretaker's level of anxiety, need for restraining devices (papoose) and the efficiency of the procedure will be measured. In order to perform the survey and self-assessment procedures, we will implement the use of measurement scales including a novel "emoji" child distress assessment scale, and a published adult anxiety scale (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y-1). The data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT03671317
Run by
University of Southern California
People needed
60
Starts
2019-09-01
Expected to finish
2019-12-15
Last updated by the study team
2019-07-31

Who can join

Age: 3 and older, up to 11. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

You may not qualify if…

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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