The significance of education in reducing anxiety experienced by patients before coronary angiography

The objective of this experimental study was to evaluate the significance of patient education in reducing the anxiety experienced by the patients before the implementation of the coronary angiography. 100 patients, who were hospitalized in the cardiology department of Istanbul University Medical School between 01.03.2017 and 17.04.2017 for their first coronary angiography and had no communicational problems or psychiatric and mental diseases, consisted the sample group of the study. The patients, who have given their consent for the participation, were divided into two groups (50 patients in sample group and 50 patients in control group) without randomization but homogeneously regarding their age, gender and educational level. "Information and Consent Form for Volunteers" prepared by the researcher, "Patient Identification Form" prepared by the researcher considering the literature, "State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-I, STAI-II)" developed by Spielberger and his colleagues in 1970 and adapted by N. Öner to the Turkish population in 1985 and "Patient Information Booklet for the Coronary Angiography Intervention" prepared by the researcher considering the literature were used as data collection tools. The obtained data was analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 22 package software, Shapiro-Wilk test, Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Wilcoxon signed-rank Chi-Square test, YatesContinuity Correction and Fisher Exact Chi-Square test. p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. According to the results of the data analysis, the investigation of the trait anxiety levels revealed that the trait anxiety level scores were significantly higher in women in both groups (experiment group: p:0.001, p<0.01; control group: p:0.008, p<0.01). Although, there was no statistically significant difference between the professions in the experiment group (p>0.05), the same parameter was statistically significant in the control group (p:0.004; p<0.01). We also evaluated the groups according to the professions with a significant difference and found out that thetrait anxiety scores of the individuals working in the private sector were significantly higher compared to the unemployed individuals (p:0.034) and retired individuals (p:0.001) [p:0.004 and p<0.01 respectively]. Evaluation of the results of the state anxiety levels showed that there was no statistically significant difference regarding the mean value of the pre-instruction state anxiety scores in both groups (p>0.05). However, in the experiment group, the mean value of the state anxiety scores displayed a significant decline and dropped from 47.06±9.88 to 36.16±6.51 after the instruction. On the other hand, considering the control group, the mean value of the state anxiety scores, which was 41,44±10,76 before the instruction, dropped to 41,40±10,68 after the instruction. After the instruction, although the mean value of the state anxiety score did not show any significant change in the control group, in the experiment group, it displayed as expected a statistically significant decline in the mean value of the state anxiety score (p:0,004; p<0,01). Before the instruction mean trait anxiety score was significantly higher in the control group than the experiment group (p:0,008; p<0,01). In conclusion, based on results of the findings obtained in the study, we determined that the instruction given to the patients before the coronary angiography played a positive role in reducing the anxiety. We recommenddetermining the patients' requirements and to plan a nursing approach including patient education in patients, who will undergo coronary angiography.