The effect of the sight of blood and use of decorative adhesive bandages on pain intensity ratings by preschool children.

Abstract

A total of 70 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years participated in two studies that tested the effect of (a) the sight of blood and (b) the application of a decorated adhesive bandage on pain intensity ratings following a fingerstick. In both studies, children were randomly assigned to one of four groups. These groups allowed for the combinations of testing blood or no blood and the application of a decorated adhesive bandage or plain adhesive bandage. The Oucher (Beyer, 1984) and the Poker Chip Tool (Hester, 1979) were used as self-report measures of pain intensity at the time of the fingerstick and immediately after the application of the adhesive bandage. The pilot study recruited 20 children from two day care centers and subjected them to sham fingersticks. Results indicated that there were no differences across the groups in pain intensity ratings. However, there was a trend for the sight of blood to increase the child's pain intensity rating. Age was a significant covariate across all groups, with younger children reporting higher levels of pain intensity. The second study took place in a pediatric test center of a metropolitan children's hospital. Fifty outpatient children who were receiving fingersticks for preoperative or diagnostic testing were enrolled. Results indicated that there were no differences across groups, and age was only significant on the Poker Chip Tool. These results suggest that simple interventions and distractions are not sufficient to decrease perceived pain intensity ratings in young children.