Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality Education Before Chest Radiography on Anxiety and Distress Among Pediatric Patients

Abstract

Pediatric patients often encounter anxiety and distress in hospital settings, and virtual reality education, providing a vivid, immersive, and realistic experience, has been introduced to mitigate these anxiety responses. To evaluate whether virtual reality education for pediatric patients before chest radiography could reduce anxiety and distress in children and improve the radiographic process. This prospective randomized clinical trial was conducted in a tertiary academic hospital in Seongnam, Republic of Korea. Participants (n = 112) were children aged 4 to 8 years who underwent chest radiography between July 20, 2018, and September 11, 2018. Analysis was performed from October 2, 2018, to April 23, 2019. Children were randomized to simple verbal instruction (control group) or 3-minute virtual reality education explaining the process of chest radiography in detail and leading to appropriate cooperation (virtual reality group). The primary outcome was anxiety and distress among pediatric patients based on behavioral observations using the amended version of the Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress scale for radiology procedures (total score of 30, with a score <5 indicating less distressed and a score ≥5 indicating more distressed). Secondary outcomes were the need of parental presence, parental satisfaction score, procedure time, number of repeated images, and process difficulty score. Of 99 children included in the final analysis, 50 (50.5%) were allocated to the control group (mean [SD] age, 5.6 [1.2] years; 26 boys [52.0%]) and 49 (49.5%) to the virtual reality group (mean [SD] age, 5.8 [1.3] years; 32 boys [65.3%]). The mean (SD) score for anxiety and distress (2.0 [3.7] vs 5.0 [6.1]; mean difference, 3.0 [95% CI, 1.0-5.0]; P = .004), need for parental presence (8 cases with parents present [16.3%] vs 18 cases with parents present [36.0%]), and mean (SD) procedure time (55.1 [21.6] seconds vs 75.0 [42.0] seconds) were lower in the virtual reality group than in the control group. The mean (SD) score for parental satisfaction (9.4 [1.4] vs 8.6 [2.0]) was higher in the virtual reality group than in the control group. Virtual reality education before chest radiography improved the radiography experience among pediatric patients by reducing anxiety, distress, and procedure time while increasing parents' satisfaction. UMIN Clinical Trials Registry: UMIN000030663.