EFFECTIVENESS OF AUDIOVISUAL DISTRACTION IN REDUCING ANXIETY AMONG HOSPITALIZED PRESCHOOL CHILDREN ADMITTED TO SELECTED TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN, BELAGAVI CITY

Background:Children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old are preschoolers. During the preschool phase, biological, psychosocial, emotional, moral, and social accomplishments are integrated. Preschoolers are pre-operational thinkers who believe in tangible presentation rather than concepts. Therefore, medical instruments and the hospital environment cause anxiety in them. Hospital admission is a traumatic event for both kids and adults, who unexpectedly have to abandon their comfortable residence and the people who are precious to them and avoid their enjoyable pastimes.

Aim:This study aims to assess the effectiveness of audiovisual distraction in reducing hospitalization anxiety.

Methods: This study used a pre-experimental (one group pretest-posttest) research design. Fifty preschoolers were selected using a non-probability convenient sampling technique. Anxiety was, evaluated using the Visual Analogue Scale for anxiety.

Results:During the pretest, 60% of children had severe anxiety, 40% had mild anxiety after the audiovisual distraction, 62% had no anxiety, and 38% had mild anxiety. The mean anxiety level in the pretest score was 6.88, and the post-test score was 3.14, and the P-value was <0.0001. Findings revealed that audiovisual distraction effectively reduces the level of anxiety among hospitalized preschoolers. History and duration of the previous hospitalization have a significant association with the level of anxiety.

Conclusions: Audiovisual distraction is effective in reducing anxiety among hospitalized preschoolers.