Intraoperative text messaging to reduce parental stress during outpatient pediatric surgery: a randomized trial

This study assessed parental stress during outpatient pediatric surgery and the impact of intraoperative text messaging as a supportive intervention. Text messages reduced stress in fathers but showed minimal benefit and potential adverse effects in mothers, with increased subjective stress at surgery onset; no overall stress reduction was observed in the full cohort. The preoperative phase was identified as the most stressful for parents. These findings inform pediatric surgical teams that text-based interventions may support fathers' perioperative coping and postoperative compliance but may be ineffective or counterproductive for mothers, highlighting the need in future research for gender-sensitive stress-reduction strategies.