VR to Reduce Pain/Anxiety During IV Starts

June 28, 2021 updated by: Jeffrey I Gold, PhD, Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Effect of Immersive Virtual Reality on Pain and Anxiety in Pediatric Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Access: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This study aims to test the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) as a non-pharmaceutical intervention to reduce pain and anxiety in children undergoing peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) access in the Department of Radiology and Imaging or the outpatient Infusion Center at CHLA, as measured by self- and proxy-report.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Distraction is a form of non pharmacological intervention for reducing pain and anxiety in children during painful medical procedures (e.g., venipuncture, IV placement). Recent technological developments in the area of virtual reality (VR) provide new and potentially more effective ways of distracting children from the pain and anxiety associated with medical procedures. While initial studies of VR pain distraction are promising, few have studied the effectiveness of the technology in children, using a multi-method approach. The current study aims to recruit 115 children ages 10-21 years and their caregivers who arrive at the hospital for peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) access in the Department of Radiology and Imaging or the outpatient Infusion Center. Children and their parents will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: 1) existing hospital standard of care or 2) standard of care plus distraction via VR. Children and caregivers will be asked to complete measures assessing pain and anxiety both before and after the procedure. In addition, objective measures of child pain and distress during the PIVC access will be taken using coding of behavioral/verbal expressions. Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) will be used to compare differences in primary and secondary outcome variables in VR + standard of care to standard of care only conditions when pre and post-operative measures are available. Univariate ANOVA will be used to compare conditions on post-operative variables.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

107

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90027
        • Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

10 years to 21 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria for Children:

  1. Children who are 10-21 years old
  2. Children who are English speaking (caregivers may be Spanish English speaking or Spanish speaking)
  3. Children who are undergoing PIVC access in the Department of Radiology and Imaging or the outpatient Infusion Center.
  4. Only children who are in the normal range of development will be recruited for this study. This will be assessed by report from the parents. The rationale for excluding patients with developmental delay is that due to their cognitive impairments, such children react to the stressors of surgery differently than do children without such developmental delay. It is unclear how such children would use the interventions included in this study, and it is likely that their responses on baseline and outcome measures will differ from children of normal developmental parameters.

Inclusion criteria for healthcare providers:

  1. Healthcare providers must be 18 years old or older
  2. Healthcare providers must be Children's Hospital Los Angeles staff
  3. Healthcare providers may participate if they have witnessed and/or administered the medical procedure

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Children who are currently taking pain medication or anxiolytic medication will be excluded from this study.
  2. Children with a psychiatric disorder, organic brain syndrome, mental retardation, or other known cognitive/neurological disorders
  3. Children with visual, auditory, or tactile deficits that would interfere with the ability to complete the experimental tasks
  4. Children with a history of seizure disorder.
  5. Children currently sick with flu-like symptoms or experiencing a headache or earache.
  6. Children with known or suspected motion sickness

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Standard of Care (No VR) Randomization
In the standard of care treatment condition, participants will receive the standard CHLA treatment protocol for PIVC placement (i.e., a topical numbing spray and Buzzy® Bee, a vibrating device placed near the PIVC site for pain distraction).
Experimental: VR Randomization
Children in the VR condition will undergo the invasive procedure while distracted by interaction with an immersive virtual environment (VE) presented via a head mounted display (HMD). The intervention group will receive standard CHLA treatment with VR distraction. Patients began gameplay <5 minutes before their PIVC placement and concluded after successful vascular access.
Device: Samsung Gear VR
Participants 13 -21 years old can use the Samsung Gear VR. The VE is mobile based (Samsung with the Gear VR) and has active matrix LCDs with high pixel resolution, creating a bright, vibrant color and a quality image. Participants will engage with BearBlast (appliedVR™), a multi-sensory VR game in which users travel on a pre-set path through a colorful, highly-interactive 3-D environment filled with animated landscapes, buildings, and clouds, during which the user's gaze controls the direction of a firing cannon to knock down teddy bears. The VR game is equipped with a head-tracking system, enabling the player to look around the VE. Therefore, the child will be receiving distraction via 3-D visual and auditory sensory, thus supplying a multi-sensory immersive experience. While wearing these glasses, the children only can see the HMD screen so that the immersion and presence will be increased. The VR glasses will be sanitized before every use to minimize chance of infection.
Device: Merge VR
Participants 10-21 years can use the Merge. The VE to be used in this study is mobile based (Pixel with the Merge) and has active matrix LCDs with high pixel resolution, creating a bright, vibrant color and a quality image. Participants will engage with BearBlast (appliedVR™), a multi-sensory VR game in which users travel on a pre-set path through a colorful, highly-interactive 3-D environment filled with animated landscapes, buildings, and clouds, during which the user's gaze controls the direction of a firing cannon to knock down teddy bears. The VR game is equipped with a head-tracking system, enabling the player to look around the VE. Therefore, the child will be receiving distraction via 3-D visual and auditory sensory, thus supplying a multi-sensory immersive experience. While wearing these glasses, the children only can see the HMD screen so that the immersion and presence will be increased. The VR glasses will be sanitized before every use to minimize chance of infection.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R)
Time Frame: Approximately 5 minutes to one hour before procedure
Revised is an updated version of the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale depicting no pain as a neutral expression as compared with the smiling face of the original measure. The child is asked to point to the face cartoon that depicts how they are currently feeling because of their pain. Face measures are thought to measure pain intensity, and the Wong-Baker Faces measure has demonstrated good reliability and validity.
Approximately 5 minutes to one hour before procedure
Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)
Time Frame: Approximately 5 minutes to one hour before procedure
The VAS anticipatory anxiety measure is a vertical VAS, anchored with 0 at the bottom indicating the least amount and 10 at the top indicating the greatest amount, in response to the instruction to rate "how nervous, afraid, or worried" they were about the upcoming task. The scale also has color cues, graded from yellow at the bottom to dark red at the top, as well as a neutral face at the bottom and a face showing a negative expression at the top. Prior research used the VAS to rate anticipatory anxiety and pain in children
Approximately 5 minutes to one hour before procedure

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI)
Time Frame: Approximately 5 minutes to one hour before procedure
This 18-item measure utilizes a three-point Likert scale (none (1), some (2), a lot (3)) to assess how negatively patients view anxiety symptoms. Items are summed with a higher score indicating greater anxiety sensitivity.
Approximately 5 minutes to one hour before procedure
Gold & Rizzo Immersion/Presence (GRIP) Inventory
Time Frame: Approximately 5 minutes to one hour before procedure
Gold & Rizzo Immersion/Presence (GRIP) Inventory is a Child Presence Questionnaire was developed out of a content analysis of the entire domain of adult presence items and selection and adaptation of appropriate items for assessing the child's sense of believability of their experience. This 16-item measure is verbally administered to children and asks them to respond according to a 3-point Likert-like format. Items assess the child's sense of involvement, realism, and transportation into the experience. Patients in the VR condition will complete the Child Presence Questionnaire post-procedure to assess level of VR immersion.
Approximately 5 minutes to one hour before procedure

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Collaborators

AppliedVR Inc.

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 12, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 24, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

July 24, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 18, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 18, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

June 28, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 1, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 28, 2021

Last Verified

June 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CHLA-15-00549_A

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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