Medical clowning in hospitalized children: a meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Medical clowning has been proven effective in reducing pain, anxiety, and stress in many sporadic, usually small-scale studies. Our meta-analysis aims to evaluate the efficiency of medical clowns in reducing pain and anxiety in hospitalized pediatric patients and their parents in different medical fields.

Methods

A thorough literature search was conducted from different databases, and only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included with children aged 0 to 18 years old. A total of 18 studies were included, and statistical analysis was performed on the combined data.

Results

A total of 912 children (14 studies) showed significantly reduced anxiety when procedures were performed with a medical clown compared with the controls (- 0.76 on anxiety score, P

SUBMITTER: Kasem Ali Sliman R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10533584 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature