Effect of telephone intervention on anxiety in colposcopy patients

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a supportive educational telephone intervention on the levels of knowledge and anxiety in patients undergoing cervical colposcopy following an abnormal Pap result. Twenty-two college women younger than 30 years of age who were referred for their first colposcopy exam were administered the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and a Knowledge About Colposcopy Questionnaire 9 designed by the investigator. Ten of the participants were randomly selected to receive a supportive educational telephone intervention prior to the exam. The results confirmed that colposcopy patients experience anxiety and that sensory and procedure-specific information increases knowledge about colposcopy (p=.02). While the intervention group demonstrated lower state anxiety, the results did not reach statistical significance (p=.12). There was also a tendency toward lower anxiety in the participants who demonstrated greater knowledge, but, again, statistical significance was not reached (p=.24). state anxiety scores were significantly higher in those patients with more lifetime sex partners (p=.05).