A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of art-based psychological distraction on school-aged children's pain and anxiety during painful procedures

Aim. This study aimed to investigate whether arts-based interventions are effective in reducing the pain and anxiety of children during venipuncture.Material and methods. Our search involved 9 databases, including Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, ScienceDirect, Scopus, MEDLINE, EMBASE via PsycINFO, LILACS, ERIC, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Dissertation Abstracts International until 31 December 2021. Clinical trials in humans published in English randomized or non-randomized were the main criteria for eligibility.Results. We included five RCTs in our review and all were included in our meta-analysis. Quantitative analysis of different clinical parameters was described. In the art-based intervention compared with the control group in terms of reduction in pain mean deviation was -0.68; 95% confidence interval: -1.14, -0.22), whereas the art-based intervention compared with the control group in terms of anxiety reduction mean deviation: -0.78; 95% confidence interval: -1.47, -0.09) during venipuncture procedures.Conclusions. In this study, art-based interventions were found to be effective for children undergoing venipuncture. However, most studies have a high risk of bias and are of low quality, so the results cannot be generalized.