{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T10:05:14Z","timestamp":1777716314019,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"IMR Press","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,20]],"date-time":"2026-04-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776643200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Br. J. Hosp. Med. (Lond)"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Aims\/Background: Providing effective nursing interventions alongside pharmacological treatment is essential for enhancing children\u2019s cooperation, alleviating clinical symptoms, and promoting recovery. This study aims to investigate the effects of therapeutic play combined with emotional soothing care on clinical outcomes, nutritional status, and sleep quality in children with acute diarrhea, and to inform a comprehensive nursing strategy for clinical management. Methods: This retrospective study included 148 children with acute diarrhea admitted to the Women and Children\u2019s Hospital of Ningbo University between June 2023 and May 2025. Participants were grouped according to the nursing intervention received: children receiving emotional soothing care were assigned to the control group (n = 78), whereas those receiving therapeutic play combined with emotional soothing care were assigned to the observation group (n = 70). Baseline characteristics and clinical data were extracted from the medical record system and comparatively analyzed between groups. Results: The observation group demonstrated significantly shorter diarrhea cessation time, abdominal pain cessation time, and length of hospital stay compared with the control group (p &lt; 0.05). No statistically significant difference in fever resolution time was observed between the groups (p &gt; 0.05). In the viral etiology subgroup, the observation group showed significantly shorter diarrhea cessation time, shorter abdominal pain cessation time, and a shorter length of hospital stay compared to the control group (p &lt; 0.05). In the bacterial etiology subgroup, diarrhea cessation time and abdominal pain cessation time were also significantly shorter in the observation group (p &lt; 0.05), whereas the difference in length of hospital stay between groups was not statistically significant (p &gt; 0.05). Following the intervention, serum albumin (Alb), prealbumin (PA), and hemoglobin (Hb) levels in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p &lt; 0.05). Post-intervention scores for sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, daytime dysfunction, and the total Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score were significantly lower in the observation group than those in the control group (p &lt; 0.05). Although the incidence rates of dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, diaper rash, perianal breakdown, and dyspnea were lower in the observation group than those in the control group, these differences did not reach statistical significance (p &gt; 0.05). The proportion of children experiencing at least one adverse clinical outcome was compared between the observation group and the control group (p &lt; 0.05). Conclusion: Therapeutic play combined with emotional soothing care is associated with improved clinical outcomes, enhanced nutritional status, and better sleep quality in children with acute diarrhea, thereby facilitating overall recovery.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.31083\/bjhm53107","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T10:17:23Z","timestamp":1777457843000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Effects of Therapeutic Play Combined With Emotional Soothing Care on Clinical Outcomes, Nutritional Status, and Sleep Quality in Children With Acute Diarrhea"],"prefix":"10.31083","volume":"87","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-6289-548X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ying","family":"He","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Digestive, Women and Children\u2019s Hospital of Ningbo University, 315012 Ningbo, Zhejiang, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"16242","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Fang YH, Wan CM, Gong ST, Fang F, Sun M, Qian Y, et al. 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