EFFECTIVENESS OF PLAY THERAPY ON PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN AND ANXIETY LEVEL OF THEIR PARENTS.

An experimental study was conducted in a pediatric ward at Himalayan Hospital jolly grant. Dehradun Uttarakhand to assess the effectiveness of play therapy on physiological parameters of hospitalized children and anxiety level of their parents. Research design was two group pre test-posttest designs. Sample size was 60 hospitalized children between the age group of 3-8 years and their parents (30 in experimental group and 30 in control group) who fulfilled inclusion criteria were selected through simple random sampling technique and they were randomly divided in to experimental and control group. Ethical permission obtained and the data was collected by using Beck Anxiety Inventory scale to assess the level of anxiety among parents and physiological parameters of children. Intervention was given in the form of play therapy to experimental group for one week. The mean post test anxiety score after play therapy in the control group was 29.63±12.5 and in experimental group ,it was 20.87±8.8 .The result shows a significance difference between the mean anxiety score in control and experimental group (p<0.05). Play therapy was also effective in improving the physiological parameters of hospitalized children. The finding of the study reveals that the play therapy had a vital role in improving the physiological parameters of hospitalized children and in reducing the level of anxiety of parents.