Play dough or balloon blowing? A clinical trial comparing creative interventions for reducing preoperative anxiety in children aged 4–8 years

Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of participants

Variables	Group (Mean ± SD)			P value
Variables	PD (n = 30)	BB (n = 30)	Control (n = 30)
Age (year)	5.65 ± 1.45	6.32 ± 1.43	6.21 ± 1.35	0.20^**
Gender (Male/Female)	22/8	17/13	16/14	0.23^*
History of surgery (Yes/No)	5/25	7/23	6/24	0.56^*
Previous hospitalization (Yes/No)	3/27	3/27	5/25	0.66^*
ASA physical status (l/ll)	8/22	14/16	15/15	0.13^*
Type of surgery, n (%) Tonsillectomy Adenoidectomy Myringotomy	11 (36.7) 8 (26.7) 11 (36.7)	11 (36.7) 10 (33.3) 9 (30.0)	14 (46.7) 12 (40.0) 4 (13.3)	0.33^*
Parental education level, n (%) Illiterate Primary education High school Undergraduate	2 (6.7) 9 (30.0) 7 (23.3) 12 (40.0)	5 (16.7) 6 (20.0) 9 (30.0) 10 (33.3)	5 (16.7) 9 (30.0) 6 (20.0) 10 (33.3)	0.79^*

ASA: American Society of Anesthesiologists, PD: Play Dough, BB: Balloon Blowing, SD: Standard Deviation, ^*Chi-square, ^**Analysis of Variance

ISSN: 1471-2431