Calming children when drawing blood using breath-based biofeedback

Tobias Sonne, Tim Merritt, Paul Marshall, Johanne J. Lomholt, Jörg Müller, Kaj Grønbæk

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

    24 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Blood sampling is a common and necessary procedure in the treatment and diagnosis of a variety of diseases. However, it often results in painful and stressful experiences for children. Designed together with domain experts, ChillFish is a breath-controlled biofeedback game technology with bespoke airflow sensor that aims to calm children during blood sampling procedures. An experimental pilot study was conducted in which 20 children aged 6-11 were assigned to one of two conditions involving either passive distraction (watching a video) or active distraction using the ChillFish prototype. Medical staff rated ChillFish significantly more useful in facilitating the blood sampling procedure compared to passive distraction. Qualitative feedback from patients, parents, and medical staff identified aspects that impact the acceptance of breath-based active distraction. Our study highlights the potential of non-pharmacological assistive technology tools to reduce fear and pain for children undergoing painful or stressful medical treatment. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationDIS 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
    PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
    Pages725-737
    Number of pages13
    ISBN (Electronic)9781450349222
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 10 Jun 2017
    Event12th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2017 - Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    Duration: 10 Jun 201714 Jun 2017

    Conference

    Conference12th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2017
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    CityEdinburgh
    Period10/06/1714/06/17

    Research Groups and Themes

    • Bristol Interaction Group

    Keywords

    • 3D print
    • Assistive technology
    • Biofeedback
    • Blood drawing
    • Blood test
    • Calming
    • Children
    • Field study
    • Game
    • Hospital context
    • In the wild
    • Medical
    • Relax
    • Tangible computing

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