Meta-Analysis of Virtual Reality for Pediatric Needle Pain in Emergency Departments

Nine randomized controlled trials involving 944 children were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. It evaluates the efficacy of virtual reality distraction for reducing needle-related procedural pain, anxiety, and fear in pediatric emergency departments, with data pooled from searches of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science up to April 2024.

Use Cases

• Analyze pooled effect sizes for pain reduction, measured by standardized mean differences (SMDs) and 95% confidence intervals from nine RCTs.
• Investigate heterogeneity in anxiety outcomes, attributed to variations in VR content (passive vs. interactive) and outcome measurement tools.
• Examine the secondary outcome of fear, which showed lower heterogeneity (I² = 34.1%) compared to primary pain and anxiety measures.
• Compare the efficacy of VR interventions against standard care protocols across different pediatric age groups as discussed in the review.

Strengths

• The analysis is based on data from nine randomized controlled trials, a standard for clinical evidence.
• It includes a substantial sample of 944 pediatric patients from the included studies.
• The review protocol was pre-registered on PROSPERO (CRD420251181929), enhancing methodological transparency.
• Outcomes are quantified using standardized mean differences with 95% confidence intervals for pain, anxiety, and fear.

Limitations

• The document is a 12.1 KB DOCX file containing summary text and statistical results, not the underlying raw trial data.
• High statistical heterogeneity (I² > 80%) was observed for the primary pain and anxiety outcomes, indicating variability between studies.
• The scope is limited to the specific context of pediatric emergency department needle procedures.

Provenance

Source

Systematic review and meta-analysis authored by Jing Jing, published on figshare.

Collection Method

Data was gathered via systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science for relevant RCTs, with results pooled using a random-effects model.

Time Range

Literature search covered from database inception until April 2024.

Freshness

Literature search was conducted up to April 2024, and the record was last updated in March 2026.