The Effect of Therapeutic Play on Anxiety and Fear Levels in Children With Diabetes

Excessive stress and anxiety experienced by children can affect their physical and physiological health and hinder their ability to cope with medical interventions. Pain and negative emotions associated with blood sampling or insulin administration can negatively affect children's diabetes self-care skills and may lead to avoidance of injections.

Play-based interventions allow the child to process potentially frightening events and correct misconceptions about an illness and its management. Overall, therapeutic play interventions have been effective in reducing the child's pain, anxiety and stress while encouraging cooperation. Since insulin treatment (subcutaneous) causes fear and anxiety in children, the aim of this study was to reduce fear and anxiety by dramatization method by storytelling the child's procedure and disease with the game of administering insulin treatment (subcutaneous) to a doll.

In the Pediatric Endocrinology Service, children between the ages of 9 and 12 years who have just been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and who meet the sample selection criteria and their parents will be met and informed about the study and written and verbal consent will be obtained from the children and their parents who volunteer to participate in the study. Children will be asked to fill out the "Child Patient Identification Form", "State Anxiety Scale in Children" and "Child Fear Scale" 30 minutes before insulin treatment. Then, the children will be randomized by the researcher and assigned to two different groups as experimental and control groups. Before the insulin treatment procedure, the children in the experimental group will be made to take blood glucose and administer insulin on a doll with the therapeutic play method. The children in the control group will receive the routine treatment of the clinic. Within 10 minutes after subcutaneous insulin treatment, the child will be asked to fill out the "State Anxiety Scale in Children" and "Child Fear Scale".

Therapeutic Play Content: The doll to be used in the study represents the sick children in the experimental group. The child will be told that the doll has been hospitalized with a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes and will be expected to assume the role of a nurse in order to administer insulin to the doll. The materials to be used during insulin administration will be introduced to the child and the child will be made to recognize the materials more closely. Then, the steps of blood glucose measurement and insulin treatment (subcutaneous) will be explained to the child and the child will be asked to apply the insulin to the doll.