The Effects of Medical Clowns in Children Undergoing Blood Tests

Evaluation of the Effect of Hospital Clown's Performance in the Procedure Room of a Pediatric Emergency Department: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01396876

Enrollment

Registered

2011-07-19

Start date

2011-07-31

Completion date

2012-12-31

Last updated

2014-06-19

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Anxiety, Pain

Keywords

Medical clown, Pediatric emergency medicine, Emergency procedures

Brief summary

The investigators hypothesized that the participation of therapeutic clowns in the pediatric emergency department procedure room would reduce anxiety, improve the level of cooperation children can provide and avoid some of the adverse effects.

Detailed description

Research has demonstrated that cognitive psychological techniques, including distraction, can increase pain tolerance. Humor can be an important intervention, able to reduce stress to both the child and the parent. In the last decade there has been a rapid growth in the presence of therapeutic clowns in hospital, particularly in pediatric settings. If therapeutic clowns are shown to positively affect any of the parameters being measured in this study, they should be included as aprt of the standard of care in the pediatric emergency setting.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALclown

a distraction technique is performed by a clown during venipuncture

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

3 Years to 10 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* Children needing venous blood sampling or the insertion of an intravenous canula

Exclusion criteria

* Children whose blood work or intravenous line must be accomplished rapidly for therapeutic reasons * Absence of a parent during the procedure * Abnormal development according to parents

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Pain score	at the end of the procedure	recorded by the child

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Overall report of procedure's comfort	at the end of the procedure	recorded by the nurse
Parental anxiety level	at the end of the procedure	recorded by the parent
Procedure's success rate	at the end of the procedure	recorded by the nurse

Countries

Israel

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026