Awareness of Information, Anxiety, Distress, and Perceived Value of Information in Patients undergoing Endoscopic Examination

Son, Jung Tae

Abstract

purpose
A descriptive study was conducted to identify awareness of information, emotional distress, behavioral distress, and perceived value of information in clients who were scheduled for endoscopic examinations, and to determine correlations between the variables. METHOD: Participants were 87 clients who were scheduled for endoscopic examinations; gastroscopy, bronchoscopy, and colonoscopy. The questionnaires were collected from September to December, 2002 by a trained nurse. Self reports, interviews, and observations were used. Data were analyzed with frequencies, percentages, means, Pearson correlation coefficients, ANOVA, and Scheffe post test using the SPSS/PC 9.0. RESULT: The score for awareness of information was 17.46, state anxiety was 47.26, emotional distress during exam was 2.90, behavioral distress was 11.18, and perceived value of information was 4.21. Clients aged above 60 showed significantly lower awareness of information than other groups. Clients undergoing broncoscopy reported significantly higher emotional distress during the exam than subjects for colonoscopy. Clients undergoing gastroscopy showed significantly higher behavioral distress than any of the others. There were no relationships between awareness of information and anxiety, but, a significant positive relationship was found between anxiety and emotional distress during exam, between emotional distress and behavioral distress, and between awareness of information and perceived value of information. CONCLUSION: Awareness of information by the clients through provision of an educational booklet was low, and clients showed moderate level of state anxiety. Research studies are needed to compare providing information with other interventions for comfortable progress of endoscopic examinations. Especially specific strategies should be established for elderly clients to facilitate awareness of information.