ArticleChild and adolescent psychiatry and mental health2022
Effects of artificial intelligence aibo intervention on alleviating distress and fear in children.
Article in Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It has been retracted, and should not be counted. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Socially Assistive Robots for Pain Management and Emotional Responses in Pediatric Hospital Care: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Socially Assistive Robots in Promoting Positive Emotional Responses and Alleviating Postoperative Pain Among Children: Quantitative Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Harnessing the Power of AI to Improve Detection, Monitoring, and Public Health Interventions for Japanese Encephalitis.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Use of automated conversational agents in improving young population mental health: a scoping review.NPJ digital medicine · 2024Article
- Improving Diagnostic Strategies for Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: Advice for the Clinician.Psychology research and behavior management · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
- Retracted
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundProcedures and actions such as injections and immobilization cause distress to children. In the pediatric field, there is a need for interventions and support to alleviate the pain and distress caused by such medical procedures. In recent years, the introduction of robots as a means of distraction has begun to be attempted.
methodsIn this study, we conducted a non-randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of intervention using 'aibo', a dog-like robot which has artificial intelligence (AI), to promote distraction in children after vaccination. Children between the ages of 3 and 12 years old eligible for the Japanese encephalitis vaccine, and their caregivers were assigned to intervention group or control group. Then, children evaluated their pain and children's behavior were observed by observer. The mean values of Faces pain rating scale scores and observer pain scale scores were compared between groups using an unpaired t-test.
resultsFifty-seven children (32 in the intervention group) participated in the study. Results of a t-test with the control group showed that the intervention group using aibo had significantly less pain following the post-vaccination intervention than the control group using stuffed dog (Face Scale, t(55) = 2.582, p = .0125; Behavioral Observation Scale, t(55) = 2.772, p = .00759). The results support the hypothesis that the aibo intervention group will be less distressed and able to calm down more quickly after vaccination than the control group.
conclusionInteractive communicative play intervention by an artificially intelligent aibo before and after painful and frightening medical procedures may alleviate fear and anxiety and prevent medical trauma in children.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.