Effects of an educational intervention on the anxiety of women awaiting mastectomies

Abstract

The purpose of this experimental study was to assess the effects of an individualized psychocognitive educational intervention on preoperative anxiety in women awaiting mastectomies. A total of 60 women aged between 27 and 65 years were randomly distributed to two groups of 30 participants. Using the Situational Anxiety Inventory (IAS) along with repeated-measures variance analysis, it was noted that, immediately following the educational interventions (both experimental and control) there was a significant reduction (p<0.01) of anxiety with the experimental group having an additional reduction of 4.83 (p=0.05). The day before surgery, only the experimental educational intervention resulted in a significant reduction (p=0.03) of anxiety, but the difference between the two educational interventions was not significant. These results appear to support Lazarus and Folkman’s stress, appraisal and coping theory which states that direct action on cognitive perception can influence a feeling of threat as assessed through the level of anxiety.