Effectiveness of origami on anxiety among children admitted in tertiary hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Anxiety is an unpleasant and stressful experience experienced by pediatric patients during hospitalization. Origami is a form of folding paper and making papercraft to make forms like boat, airplane, flower or hat. The aim of study was to assess the effectiveness of origami on anxiety among children admitted in a hospital.

Method: A pre-experimental (one group pre-test and post-test) design was conducted among 27 admitted children in the Pediatric ward of Patan Hospital, Lalitpur, Nepal. Visual Analog Scale for Anxiety (VAS-A) was used to assess the anxiety before and after 15 minutes of intervention. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 16. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used for comparing anxiety before and after intervention whereas Fischer’s Exact Test was used to find out association between socio-demographic variables with level of anxiety before intervention.

Result: The present study revealed that the anxiety after intervening origami (median = 2, Q1= 1, Q3= 3) was
lower than before origami (median = 6, Q1= 5, Q3= 8) with p value 0.000 and effect size 0.62. Also, there is no any statistically significant association between selected demographic variables (age, gender, previous hospitalization) with level of anxiety before intervening origami.

Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that origami was effective in reducing anxiety during hospitalization of child. Therefore, study findings might help nurses working with children to use nonpharmacological method (origami) for reducing anxiety in children due to hospitalization and supporting in recovery process.