Acute respiratory infection is a major health issue and a primary cause of morbidity and mortality among preschool-aged children worldwide. Disease and hospitalization are chief stressors for children during their development. Therapeutic play has been used in pediatric care processes and has been demonstrated to be effective by most studies that have targeted children undergoing surgeries or invasive medical treatments. Currently, few published studies have focused on children receiving acute inpatient care. Additionally, not all types of therapeutic play produce significant results, and few studies have elaborated on the purposes, principles, and concrete measures of therapeutic play. Therefore, this study aimed to design therapeutic play that would reduce the stress responses of preschool-aged children hospitalized with acute respiratory infection. An experimental design with a pretest/posttest was conducted with 105 preschool children recruited from a regional teaching hospital in southern Taiwan. The children in the experimental group received the therapeutic play, while those in the control group received routine nursing care. Children in the experimental group showed significantly greater reductions in their physiological, psychological, and behavioral stress responses than those in the control group. Future studies could apply therapeutic play to children from different age groups with diverse health issues before recommending it be used in pediatric health settings.
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