The following is a summary of the “Effect of Parental Presence on Pain Levels of Children During Invasive Procedures: A Systematic Review” published in the October 2022 issue of Pain Management Nursing by Azak et al.

The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the impact of parental presence on the degree to which a kid experiences pain during invasive procedures. Examining the literature systematically. This systematic review first appeared in July 2019 and was revised in December 2020 using an English-language article database. Researchers searched the databases of Scopus, Pubmed, Cochrane, Science Direct, and MedLine. Parental presence, family involvement, invasive procedures, venipuncture, painful procedures, child, children, pediatric, and related terms were used in the search. 

The study and report followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and the systematic review was developed using the patient, intervention, comparison, outcomes (PICOS) framework. In all, 248 articles were accessed, and the eligibility of only 18 was determined by reading their full texts. About 6 studies were included in the analysis, with a total of 730 children in the sample ranging from birth to 12 years old. Articles that did not pass the full-text search were disregarded. 

About 4 studies found that having a parent present considerably reduced the child’s pain level during the invasive operation, while 2 studies found no statistically significant reduction. In addition, children experienced less discomfort when their parents were present and actively involved in the treatments. More randomized controlled trials should be conducted to understand better the impact of family involvement on patients’ perceptions of pain, as there currently needs to be more such research.

 Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1524904222001011