The effect of pupil and stress balloon application on children's anxiety level in children taking inhaler treatment

This study was carried out to determine the effect of puppet and stress balloon application on children's anxiety level in children receiving inhaler treatment. The population of the study consisted of children aged 2-10 who received inhaler treatment in the Pediatric Emergency Unit of the Istanbul University Medical Faculty Hospital, where the research was conducted between July and October 2021. The sample of the study consisted of 159 children who applied to the Pediatric Emergency Unit within the specified date range and met the sample selection criteria. The children included in the study were randomly divided into 3 groups as 2 experimental and 1 control group. (Control group (n=53), puppet group (n=53), stress balloon group (n=53) Computer-assisted randomization was used in the formation of the groups. Data belonging to the study were collected from the "Parent Child Descriptive Information Form" and "Children's Emotional Expression Form". It was collected with the "Beat Evaluation Scale". The data were analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 program. The level of significance was accepted as p<0.05. Groups; They were similar in terms of characteristics such as age, gender, age of parents, educational status of parents (p>0.05). The mean anxiety scores of the children in the puppet group (6.83±1.7) and the stress balloon group (7.75±2.73) who received inhaler treatment were found to be lower than the children in the control group (14.86±8.5) (p< 0.05). Although the anxiety scores of the children in the puppet group were lower than those in the stress balloon group, no statistically significant difference was found between the groups when the groups were compared (p>0.05). Puppet and stress balloon application is effective in reducing anxiety in children receiving inhaler treatment. Both applications can be used to reduce anxiety in children receiving inhaler therapy. Keywords: Anxiety, inhaler therapy, nebulizer, puppet application, stress balloon application.