Impact of Distraction Technique on Reducing the Infant's Vaccination Pain

Vaccination is a most common painful problem during infancy, which is typically ignored. Regarding importance of pain control in children, this study was done to investigate impact of distraction technique on reducing the infants’ vaccination pain. In this clinical trial, 80 infants were selected from six-month-old infants who were referred to Sajadshahr health center of Birjand University of Medical Sciences, by convenience sampling and were randomly allocated to experimental and control groups. During vaccination, experimental group received a rattle as a distraction technique by the researcher 40 seconds before until 15 seconds after vaccination, control group received only routine vaccination interventions. Severity of pain was evaluated using the modified behavioral pain scale (MBPS), and duration of crying time was recorded. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 11.5 and Chi-Square, Mann Whitney U, Independent T Test and Spearman statistical tests with 0.05 significant levels. There were no significant differences in two study groups in sex, nutrition time before vaccination, previous experience of pain, weight, and bedtime before vaccination (P>0.05). Mean of pain severity and crying time in distraction groups was significantly lower than control group (P=0.0001). Regarding to decrease intensity pain and duration of crying in the experimental group, this method can be useful on reducing the infant’s vaccination pain.