Study: iPad As Good As Sedative At Calming Kids Before Operations
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Parents are always looking for something to calm their kids down, and it turns out an iPad may just be what the doctor ordered.
A French study found that iPads can reduce anxiety levels of children prior to surgery just as effective as a sedative.
More than 100 children between the ages of four and ten were studied, and the findings were presented at the World Congress of Anesthesiologists.
54 of the children were given a sedative, while 58 of them played age appropriate games on the iPad for 20 minutes before anesthesia.
Researchers found that both the drug and iPad both had the same effect on the children.
"Our study showed that child and parental anxiety before anaesthesia are equally blunted by midazolam or use of the iPad. However, the quality of induction of anaesthesia, as well as parental satisfaction, were judged better in the iPad group," Dr Dominique Chassard said in a press release.
The tablet also fared better when it came to administering the numbing agent for kids before surgery.
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"Use of iPads or other tablet devices is a non-pharmacologic tool which can reduce perioperative stress without any sedative effect in paediatric ambulatory surgery," Chassard also reported.