An Investigation into the Effect of Employing Relaxation and Attention Deviation Methods on Alleviating Pain in Children Hospitalized in State Hospitals

Pain is the most common type of stress encountered by humans, especially children. Medications and non-pharmaceutical techniques are used to control pain. The present study aims at examining two non- pharmaceutical methods of pain control, namely relaxation and attention deviation in children admitted to state hospitals. To this end, 51 hospitalized children are selected via convenience sampling method, and once homogenized; they are placed in three equal groups: relaxation, attention deviation and control group. The results of analysis of single- variable covariance show that perception of pain decreases in the two experimental groups compared to the control group, and that relaxation is more effective than the attention deviation method. It can be concluded that two methods of attention deviation and relaxation can be used as non- pharmacological methods along with other methods of pain control in children and cause them to get along with their pain more easily