Effect of pretreatment education on anxiety in patients undergoing radiation therapy for the first time: A randomized clinical trial

AbstractBackground: Pretreatment anxiety is one of the most common problems in patients undergoing radiotherapy, especially for the first time. There are limited and contradictory studies on the effect of multimedia as compared with common education methods. This study was intended to evaluate the effect of pretreatment multimedia on patient anxiety in the head and neck cancer radiotherapy setting.Methods: In a randomized clinical trial, 66 patients who resided in eastern Iran were recruited from three cancer treatment centers. The experimental group (n = 33) received a 20-minute multimedia presentation, while its print version of the same content was applied in the control group (n = 33). The study measure was evaluated by the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), which was answered by the participants at baseline after the visit by a cancer specialist deciding on radiotherapy and 2 weeks later prior to the starting of the treatment.Results: The findings indicated that statistically significa...