A Comparison of Distractors for Controlling Distress in Young Children During Medical Procedures

Distraction is a strategy that has been shown to be effective and safe in the control of pain and distress. We assessed the utility of two simple distraction procedures for reducing children's pain and distress. Three conditions, control, brief film, and short story, were delivered during repeated medical procedures in a randomized sequence to eight young children with cancer. Scores on the Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress (OSBD-R) as well as observer ratings of overall behavioral distress showed that the short story procedure was more effective than either the control condition or the cartoon film. These results argue for the utility of simple parent–child interactive distraction tasks to ameliorate children's procedural distress.