Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Dec;66(12):e27984.
doi: 10.1002/pbc.27984. Epub 2019 Sep 5.

Feasibility and acceptability of an animatronic duck intervention for promoting adaptation to the in-patient setting among pediatric patients receiving treatment for cancer

Affiliations

Feasibility and acceptability of an animatronic duck intervention for promoting adaptation to the in-patient setting among pediatric patients receiving treatment for cancer

Tamara P Miller et al. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2019 Dec.

Abstract

Background: During cancer treatment, children undergo potentially stressful hospitalizations and procedures. Animatronic devices are a promising means of distraction intervention. This study aimed to assess acceptability and feasibility of the My Special Aflac Duck® (MSAD) intervention among pediatric oncology patients and parents. We hypothesized that MSAD would be feasible to implement, have greater than 50% acceptance, and be useful distraction.

Procedures: This feasibility study enrolled oncology patients aged 3-11 years admitted to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta between May and August 2018. Patients were exposed to MSAD for 3 days and completed quantitative and qualitative assessments of acceptability. Patient and hospital data were abstracted.

Results: Seventeen (80.9%) of 21 eligible patients enrolled; 64.7% were <7 years, 47% were female, 52.9% had leukemia, 41.2% had solid tumors, and 5.9% had brain tumors. Patients had 1-12 previous admissions (mean 4.8, SD 3.1) and approximately 65% were planned hospitalizations. Approximately 69% reported MSAD helped reduce in-patient distress and 93.7% were satisfied with MSAD overall. Child satisfaction was high. There were no significant differences in acceptability or satisfaction with MSAD based on age, gender, number of inpatient procedures or previous hospitalizations, or hospitalization reason. Qualitative interviews revealed patients liked expressing feelings with tokens and thought MSAD was a fun distraction.

Conclusions: MSAD implementation was feasible, and its acceptability was high among both patients and parents. MSAD shows potential as good distraction and an alternative means of communicating feelings. Future research should expand upon the effectiveness of MSAD on reducing distress.

Keywords: intervention; pediatric oncology; psychosocial; support care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Support for this study was provided, in part, by Aflac Incorporated also provided resources for the creation of the My Special Aflac Duck®. The researchers involved in this study were not involved in the creation or development of My Special Aflac Duck®. The investigative team independently designed the study, including the selection of outcomes. Further, interpretations were done exclusively within the scientific research group. The analyses were performed by T.P.M. and A.C.M. and all results are reported in an objective fashion. No financial incentives for study outcomes were provided to the research team, and no improper influence (either directly or indirectly) occurred during the research and reporting process.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
My Special Aflac Duck®, with accessories: seven different emoji feeling tokens (angry, calm, happy, sad, scared, sick, and silly), spaceship token, and port-a-cath attachment. Photo © Aflac, Inc

Similar articles

Cited by

  • Family-centred care interventions for children with chronic conditions: A scoping review.
    Chow AJ, Saad A, Al-Baldawi Z, Iverson R, Skidmore B, Jordan I, Pallone N, Smith M, Chakraborty P, Brehaut J, Cohen E, Dyack S, Gillis J, Goobie S, Greenberg CR, Hayeems R, Hutton B, Inbar-Feigenberg M, Jain-Ghai S, Khangura S, MacKenzie JJ, Mitchell JJ, Moazin Z, Nicholls SG, Pender A, Prasad C, Schulze A, Siriwardena K, Sparkes RN, Speechley KN, Stockler S, Taljaard M, Teitelbaum M, Trakadis Y, Van Karnebeek C, Walia JS, Wilson K, Potter BK. Chow AJ, et al. Health Expect. 2024 Feb;27(1):e13897. doi: 10.1111/hex.13897. Health Expect. 2024. PMID: 39102737 Free PMC article.
  • Multidisciplinary Management of Medulloblastoma: Consensus, Challenges, and Controversies.
    Chatterjee A, Maitre M, Dasgupta A, Sridhar E, Gupta T. Chatterjee A, et al. Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2423:215-235. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1952-0_19. Methods Mol Biol. 2022. PMID: 34978701

References

    1. Howlader N, Noone AM, Krapcho M, eds. SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975–2014. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute; 2017. https://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2014/. Accessed October 22, 2018.
    1. Mrakotsky CM, Silverman LB, Dahlberg SE, et al. Neurobehavioral side effects of corticosteroids during active treatment for acute lym-phoblastic leukemia in children are age-dependent: report from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute ALL Consortium Protocol 00–01. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2011;57(3):492–498. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kadan-Lottick NS, Brouwers P, Breiger D, et al. A comparison of neurocognitive functioning in children previously randomized to dexam-ethasone or prednisone in the treatment of childhood acute lym-phoblastic leukemia. Blood. 2009;114(9):1746–1752. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Manne SL, Bakeman R, Jacobsen PB, Gorfinkle K, Redd WH. An analysis of a behavioral intervention for children undergoing venipuncture. Health Psychol. 1994;13(6):556–566. - PubMed
    1. Manne SL, Redd WH, Jacobsen PB, Gorfinkle K, Schorr O, Rapkin B. Behavioral intervention to reduce child and parent distress during venipuncture. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1990;58(5):565–572. - PubMed

Publication types