Alleviating Pregastroscopy Anxiety Using Mobile Social Media Application

Frontiers in Medicine

article

Dan Lu¹  Jing-Hua Wang²  Chao Lu²  Zheng-Lv Liu³  Ajay Jain⁴  Feng Ji²  Qing Gu¹ 

[1] Department of Endoscopy Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University;Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University;Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University;Meridian Medical Group, Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital

关键词: gastroscopy;    anxiety;    social media;    mobile application;    patient cooperation;    tolerance;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmed.2022.855892

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Aim The research aimed to study the effect of using WeChat (a mobile social media application) on pregastroscopy anxiety and the cooperation of patients with different coping styles. Methods In order to decrease patients' pregastroscopy anxiety and improve the tolerance of unsedated gastroscopy, WeChat, a widely used mobile social media application, was applied to provide information prior to their endoscopic procedure. Two hundred and thirty patients who underwent initial unsedated gastroscopy in a large teaching hospital in China were classified into two groups based on their coping style: information seekers or information avoiders, using the Information Subscale of the Krantz Health Opinion Survey (KHOS-I). Each of the two groups was prospectively randomly assigned to either receiving the brochure information or conjunctive interactive WeChat-delivered information of gastroscopy. To measure the level of state anxiety, the State Anxiety Scale of Spielberg's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaire was used. State anxiety, blood pressure and heart rate were measured at enrollment, upon arrival, and before gastroscopy. Results Information seekers and avoiders who received information from the brochure and the WeChat platform experienced significantly less state anxiety upon arrival and before gastroscopy. Furthermore, information seekers who received information from the conjunctive WeChat platform had lower frequency of retching, lower scores of nausea and bloating, and better tolerance. Information avoiders who received information from the conjunctive WeChat platform had lower frequency of retching, lower scores of discomfort while swallowing the scope and nausea, and better tolerance. However, we found the percentage of information seekers who preferred no WeChat-delivered pregastroscopy information is greater than WeChat-delivered information at the initial questionnaire. No significant difference was found in blood pressure or heart rate upon arrival and before gastroscopy. Conclusions Although people preferred no WeChat-delivered pregastroscopy information, the provision of gastroscopy information through a mobile social media application, such as WeChat, could significantly reduce patients' pregastroscopy anxiety, lower the frequency of retching, reduce the scores of nausea and bloating, and improve tolerance for information seekers. In addition, it could lower the frequency of retching, reduce the scores of discomfort while swallowing the scope and its concurrent nausea, and improve tolerance for information avoiders.

【 授权许可】

CC BY