Effects of two non-drug interventions on pain and anxiety in the nursing process of burn patients: a literature review with meta-analysis.

Too few studies met the inclusion criteria and the samples were small; the authors say the chance of a false-positive result is high. The virtual reality anxiety result rests on a single trial, and the authors say more randomised trials are needed before it can be relied on. Age, sex and burn size were not analysed as factors, and relaxation and vital signs could not be pooled because too few studies measured them. Most trials delivered the intervention during dressing changes, and several tested only a single session, so the review says little about repeated use or about other points in burn care.

The authors declare financial support for the research, authorship and publication of the article from the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (grant number ZR2023MH061). No other competing interests are declared.

Do not read the treatment rankings as proof that one method beats the other. The virtual reality anxiety result came from a single trial and its confidence interval touched zero, and the authors warn that the small number of studies and small sample sizes make a false positive likely.