Abstract
Objective
Assess the efficacy of the telephone intervention by nurses to reduce the anxiety scores of patients under radiotherapy treatment.
Methods
Randomized clinical trial undertaken at a radiotherapy outpatient clinic with 15-day monitoring. The sample consisted of 39 patients under radiotherapy treatment (20 in Intervention Group and 19 in Control Group). The interventions were performed by means of two telephone contacts. To collect the data, a questionnaire with sociodemographic and clinical questions and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used. The data were analyzed in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Student’s t-test for paired samples was used to compare the pre and post-intervention times.
Results
A significant reduction in the anxiety scores was found after the telephone calls (p<0.027) for the patients in the Intervention Group.
Conclusion
The use of the telephone during the 15-day monitoring showed to be an effective strategy to reduce the radiotherapy patients’ anxiety scores.
Brazilian Clinical Trial Registry – REBEC: RBR-8wn8ck
Telephone; Anxiety; Clinical trial; Neoplasms; Nursing
