Touchscreen News
Touchscreen Tablets may Ease Pre-Surgery Anxiety
Having surgery performed can trigger intense bouts of anxiety. This is particularly true when speaking about children, many of which are fearful of surgery. But there’s nee evidence suggesting that touchscreen tablets can ease pre-surgery anxiety in children.
Dr Dominique Chassard of the Hospices Civils de Lyon presented a study while speaking at the World Congress of Anesthesiologists annual conference in Hong Kong, during which he revealed the benefits of providing touchscreen tablets to children between the ages of 4 and 10 before surgery. For the study, Dr Chassard and team analyzed 115 children, all of whom were between the ages of 4 and 10, as they had various surgical procedures performed. The children were split into one of two groups: the first group was given a traditional sedative, whereas the second group was given an iPad to play games on for roughly 20 minutes before anesthesia was administered.
So, what did Dr Chassard and his team discover? They found that providing children with touchscreen tablets before surgery had the same anxiety-reducing benefits as administering sedative medication.
Two professional psychologists were tasked with evaluating the children’s anxiety levels before and after the surgery. Researchers discovered similar anxiety levels in both groups of children: those who were given tablets on which to play games, and those to whom sedatives were administered.
“Use of iPads or other tablet devices is a non-pharmacologic tool which can reduce perioperative stress without any sedative effect in pediatric ambulatory surgery,” explained Dr Chassard, one of the study’s lead authors.
While this study focused specifically on iPads, it’s safe to assume the same anxiety-reducing benefits are true for all touchscreen tablets. There’s just something naturally fun and relaxing associated with touchscreen tablets. Whether you are a man, woman, young or old, you’re sure to find enjoyment in using a touchscreen tablet. You can download and play games, run apps, create calendar reminders and more. All of these tasks divert the user’s attention away from other things, such as surgery for instance; thus, lowering stress and anxiety.
Of course, there are other benefits associated with touchscreen tablets, including ease of use. Touchscreen tablets have slowly but surely surpassed traditional tablets in terms of usage and popularity. This is largely because they are easier to use than their counterpart. Most people will instinctively know how to use a touchscreen tablet, even without any formal training or prior experience.