Effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Game for Pediatric Pain and Anxiety Management During Skin Prick Testing

Acute Pain Clinical Trial

Official title: Effectiveness of a Virtual Reality Game for Pediatric Pain and Anxiety Management During Skin Prick Testing

Status Recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

This study investigated the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) distraction, compared to book distraction and no distraction, in reducing pain and anxiety during a medical procedure in a pediatric population: the skin prick test. Although this test has many advantages and is considered to be minimally invasive, it causes anxiety and painful discomfort in children. This study concerns children aged 4 to 7 years consulting for an allergic test. Outcome measures include pain score, level of anxiety, VR measures, and satisfaction questionnaires.

Clinical Trial Description

The use of skin prick tests is considered a gold standard in the evaluation of allergic reactions. These tests involve depositing a drop or small amount of the allergen on the skin and pricking the skin to let the allergen penetrate the epidermis. Although this test has many advantages and is considered to be minimally invasive, it causes anxiety and painful discomfort for children. Managing pain and anxiety during skin prick testing is essential to prevent long-term adverse effects, especially in the case of future needle-stick interventions. To our knowledge, the studies investigating distraction methods effect on reducing anxiety and pain during skin prick tests in childrenremain limited. No study has yet investigated the value of VR as a distraction tool in this field.

We postulate a greater decrease in child pain and child and parent anxiety in the RV and book conditions compared to the control group. We also postulate a larger effect for the RV group compared to the book group. In the VR group, we postulate the absence of an increase in post-immersion cybersickness symptoms. In last, we postulated a good satisfaction to distractions proposed, with a best score for RV distraction. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Acute Pain

• NCT number: NCT05796596
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of Liege
• Contact: Céline Stassart, PhD
• Phone: +32495906750
• Email: cstassart@uliege.be
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: February 1, 2023
• Completion date: September 1, 2024