Surveying children's anxiety in the waiting room of surgery after watching the puppet show and animation

Negative results of anxiety in the process of surgery and recovery of children undergoing surgery require the use of non-prescriptive methods. Therefore, the present study aimed to measure children's anxiety in the surgical ward after the puppet show and watching animation.

This clinical trial study was performed on 90 children aged 3-6 years undergoing tonsillectomy surgery at Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2015. The children, along with their parents, watched 15 minutes of animation and puppet shows. Research instrument included demographic form and Yale Anxiety questionnaire. Data analyzed by descriptive and analytic statistical tests through SPSS software version 16.

Based in the findings, children's anxiety reduced significantly after intervention (P= 0.02). Also, children who watched puppet show had lower scores in anxiety test compared than animation group (P<0.001). Comparing anxiety before and after the intervention did not show a significant difference between the two genders.

According to the results, visual deviant techniques can have an effective role in reducing children's anxiety before surgery.