The effect of dry heat and dry cold application on pain, anxiety and fear levels before blood sample collection in school age children (7–12 years): A randomized controlled study

Blood sampling, which is frequently performed on children admitted to hospital, causes them pain, anxiety and fear. The study was carried out to determine the effects of dry heat and dry cold application before blood sampling on pain, anxiety and fear levels in school age children. The study was conducted between June and January 2021 with a parallel-group randomized controlled experimental design. It was carried out with 117 children who applied to the Pediatric Blood Collection Polyclinic of a training and research hospital. The children were assigned to dry heat application, dry cold application and control group by simple randomization. Data were collected using the Child-Family Introductory Information Form, Wong Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale (WBFPS), Child Fear Anxiety Scale (CFAS) and Medical Procedure Fear Scale (MPFS). In the data analysis, descriptive statistics, the Kruskal-Wallis H test, the Dunn test, Yates correction and the Pearson Chi-Square test were used. A level of p