The stress-reducing effects of art in pediatric health care: art preferences of healthy children and hospitalized children.

Art is assumed to possess therapeutic benefits of healing for children, as part of patient-focused design in health care. Since the psychological and physiological well-being of children in health care settings is extremely important in contributing to the healing process, it is vitally important to identify what type of art supports stress reduction. Based on adult studies, nature art was anticipated to be the most preferred and to have stress-reducing effects on pediatric patients.

The PedsQL Present Functioning Visual Analogue Scales: preliminary reliability and validity.

Background: The PedsQL Present Functioning Visual Analogue Scales (PedsQL VAS) were designed as an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) instrument to rapidly measure present or at-the-moment functioning in children and adolescents. The PedsQL VAS assess child self-report and parent-proxy report of anxiety, sadness, anger, worry, fatigue, and pain utilizing six developmentally appropriate visual analogue scales based on the well-established Varni/Thompson Pediatric Pain Questionnaire (PPQ) Pain Intensity VAS format.

Methods: The six-item PedsQL VAS was administered to 70 pediatric patients ages 5-17 and their parents upon admittance to the hospital environment (Time 1: T1) and again two hours later (Time 2: T2).