Videoconferencing to Reduce Stress Among Hospitalized Children

Abstract

WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT:Previous research has demonstrated that family presence alongside hospitalized patients is associated with improvements in physiologic responses, reductions in anxiety, and expedited recovery. Recently, videoconferencing has been increasingly used for virtual visits to pediatric patients and their parents during hospitalization.WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: Our study demonstrates that in some cases, the use of videoconferencing by children and their parents for virtual visits is associated with greater reductions in stress during hospitalization compared with children and parents who do not use videoconferencing.abstract OBJECTIVES: Family-Link is a videoconferencing program that allows hospitalized children and their parents to virtually visit family members and friends using laptops, webcams, and a secure Wi-Fi connection. We evaluated the association of Family-Link use on the reduction in stress experienced by children during hospitalization. METHODS:We offered Family-Link to pediatric patients who had an expected length of hospitalization equal to or greater than 4 days. We measured the stress levels of hospitalized children at admission and discharge using the previously published Parental Stress Survey. We used propensity score matching and multivariable linear regression methods to evaluate the relationship between the use of Family-Link and stress experienced by children during hospitalization. RESULTS:We included a total of 367 children in the study: 232 FamilyLink users and 135 non-Family-Link users. Using the propensity score matching method, we found that the use of Family-Link was significantly associated with a greater reduction in overall mean stress compared with non-Family-Link users among the cohort of patients who lived closer to the hospital and had shorter lengths of hospitalization (b = 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.03 to 0.43; P , .05). In this cohort, the reduction in overall mean stress was 37% greater among Family-Link users than non-Family-Link users. CONCLUSIONS:The use of videoconferencing by some hospitalized children and families to conduct virtual visits with family and friends outside of the hospital was associated with a greater reduction in stress during hospitalization than those who did not use videoconferencing. Dr Yang conceptualized and designed the study, coordinated the data collection process, completed the analyses, interpreted the results, and drafted the initial manuscript; Dr Dharmar conceptualized and designed the study, coordinated the data collection process, assisted with the analyses, interpreted the results, and revised the manuscript; Ms Hojman assisted with the data collection process, assisted with the analyses, and critically reviewed the manuscript; Ms Sadorra coordinated the data collection process, assisted with the analyses, and critically reviewed the manuscript; Ms Sundberg coordinated the data collection process and critically reviewed the manuscript; Mr Wold assisted with the data collection process and critically reviewed t...

Home to Hospital Live Streaming With Virtual Reality Goggles: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Experiences of Hospitalized Children (Preprint)

“…The observations in this study may support the hypothesis that combining those two techniques in one device is valuable for hospitalized patients. Prior studies about videoconferencing and VR have noted similar effects as our study regarding feelings and thoughts of the users [7][8][9]12]. Patients felt more positive and felt more "normal" when they used videoconferencing [7,8].…”

“…Yang et al evaluated the effect of videoconferencing during hospitalization on the reduction of stress experienced by the children. Their study demonstrated that the use of videoconferencing is associated with greater reduction of stress compared to those who do not use videoconferencing [9].…”

“…Videoconferencing is known as a live meeting of two or more people in separate locations being connected audio-visually via a computer or Smartphone. Both quantitative and qualitative studies have investigated the use of videoconferencing for hospitalized patients to keep in touch with their family, friends or classmates [7][8][9]. In a qualitative study the ability to communicate was highlighted as a primary benefit and parents described a significant improvement of the patients' mood [7].…”

Impact of Telemedicine on Severity of Illness and Outcomes Among Children Transferred From Referring Emergency Departments to a Children’s Hospital PICU*

“…of telemedicine to support the care of seriously ill children in referring EDs results in higher provider and patient satisfaction (16)(17)(18)(19), improved clinical outcomes (20), fewer medication errors (12), and higher quality of medical care (17,21). Pediatric telemedicine consultations can sometimes obviate unnecessary transfers (20)(21)(22)(23), facilitate timely and appropriate stabilization prior to and during the transfer process (22,23), and may result in lower severity of illness at admission to the PICU and improved outcomes.…”

Sala de Recreación para Adolescentes Internados en un hospital de alta complejidad. Programa para la Atención Integral de Adolescentes Internados

“…La posibilidad de salir de las salas de internación, jugar, comer en compañía, adquirir diferentes habilidades, intercambiar vivencias con sus pares y comunicarse con amigos y familiares que no están en el hospital representa un aporte importante para mejorar la calidad de su atención y ayuda a reducir el estrés generado por la internación. [8][9][10] No tenemos conocimiento ni hemos encontrado en la bibliografía la existencia de espacios recreativos preparados para la permanencia prolongada de niños o adolescentes con tratamientos en curso fuera de las salas de internación.…”