title: Play interventions to reduce anxiety and negative emotions in hospitalized children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hospitalization is a stressful and threatening experience, which can be emotionally devastating to children. Hospital play interventions have been widely used to prepare children for invasive medical procedures and hospitalization. Nevertheless, there is an imperative need for rigorous empirical scrutiny of the effectiveness of hospital play interventions, in particular, using play activities to ease the psychological burden of hospitalized children. This study tested the effectiveness of play interventions to reduce anxiety and negative emotions in hospitalized children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A non-equivalent control group pre-test and post-test, between subjects design was conducted in the two largest acute-care public hospitals in Hong Kong. A total of 304 Chinese children (ages 3-12) admitted for treatments in these two hospitals were invited to participate in the study. Of the 304 paediatric patients, 154 received hospital play interventions and 150 received usual care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children who received the hospital play interventions exhibited fewer negative emotions and experienced lower levels of anxiety than those children who received usual care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study addressed a gap in the literature by providing empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of play interventions in reducing anxiety and negative emotions in hospitalized children. Findings from this study emphasize the significance of incorporating hospital play interventions to provide holistic and quality care to ease the psychological burden of hospitalized children.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02665403 . Registered 22 January 2016.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong, 4/F, William M. W. Mong Block, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China. william3@hku.hk.
authors.forename: William H C
authors.initials: WHC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong, 4/F, William M. W. Mong Block, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Joyce Oi Kwan
authors.initials: JOK
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong, 4/F, William M. W. Mong Block, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Ka Yan
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Playright Children's Play Association (Playright), Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Blondi Ming Chau
authors.initials: BMC
authors.lastname: Kwok
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010989:Play Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Anxiety; Children; Emotions; Hospitalization; Paediatrics; Play interventions