The effect of video informing adolescents having polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test on anxiety during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: A randomized controlled study

The research was carried out as a single-blind, randomized parallel-controlled, experimental study to determine the effect of video informing adolescents who gave Polymerase Chain Reaction (rRT-PCR) test on anxiety. The population of the study consisted of adolescents who gave rRT-PCR test samples to a State Hospital, and the sample consisted of 272 adolescents who gave rRT-PCR test for the first time. Participants were randomly assigned to groups by applying stratified block randomization according to age and gender. Data were collected using Child/Parent Information Form, State and Trait Anxiety Inventory, Coronavirus Anxiety Scale. In the study, the adolescents in the study group were shown an animated informative video five minutes before the procedure. Sampling was carried out in line with the institutional policy without informing the adolescents in the control group. The obtained data were evaluated using Chi-square, Independent Sample t test, Paired Sample t test, One Way Anova, Mann Whitney U, post hoc LSD test, Spearman correlation tests. When the data were examined, it was determined that the adolescents in the study and control groups were statistically similar in terms of their descriptive features (p>0.05). It was determined that adolescents experienced moderate anxiety. Most of the adolescents did not have relatives (83.1%) or COVID-19 positive patients in the same house (82.7%), had positive friends at school (56.2%) but were not in class (61.4%), had positive friends It was determined that there was no contact (69.1%). While the state anxiety level of the adolescents informed by video was 38.76±10.77, the anxiety level of the adolescents in the control group was 41.68±11.92. Informing with video significantly decreased the anxiety level of adolescents (p=0.035). While it was determined that gender and social security status had an effect on the post-procedural state anxiety level in the study group, it was determined that the number of siblings affected the anxiety level in the control group (p≤0.05). It was determined that the disease characteristics related to COVID-19 had no effect on the post-procedural state anxiety level of the study and control groups (p>0.05). As a result of the research, it was found that informing with video reduces post-procedural state anxiety. In line with the results obtained, it was determined that the anxiety level of adolescents may increase especially during the pandemic process, and their anxiety levels decreased when they were informed before the invasive procedure they encountered for the first time. In this direction, it is recommended to prepare all adolescents for video processing within the scope of nursing care, and to conduct other studies that evaluate the effectiveness of informing with this method before many invasive procedures.