부산대학교 도서관

Purpose To characterize the effect of an informational video designed to reduce treatment-related anxiety viewed by patients with head and neck malignancies after their initial radiation oncology consultation. Methods Seventy-eight patients with head and neck malignancies were randomized to either complete a standard education during consultation or a 5-minute informational video and a standard education during the consultation. Baseline individual patient and disease characteristics were recorded. All patients completed a State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for adults short form Y-1 before watching the video and after completion of their consultation. Descriptive statistics and independent t tests were used to compare the 2 groups. Results No significant difference was demonstrated in the change in the mean overall anxiety scores between the control and intervention groups. Patients who watched the video experienced an improvement in their sense of worry (P = .038) and compared to the control group felt steadier (P = .018). Subgroup analysis revealed factors associated with significant improvement in aspects of their anxiety after watching the video. Never smokers in the intervention group had less overall anxiety (P = .021) compared with the control group, and patients with protracted time from diagnosis to radiation oncology consultation (> 44 days) experienced significant improvement in their anxiety after watching the video (P = .008). Married patients felt less jittery than did unmarried patients after watching the video (P = .047), and women expressed less worry over possible misfortunes after watching the video when compared with men (P = .045). Conclusions Although there was no significant improvement in the overall measure of anxiety in these patients by implementation of a multimedia patient education tool, there were improvements in isolated questions on the STAI for adults short form Y-1. There were additional improvements in specific subgroups, including sex, marital status, smoking status, and time from diagnosis to consultation with radiation oncology. This study highlights the benefits of and need for further research to combat anxiety in this heterogeneous population.