The Effect of Multimedia Health Education on Pain and Anxiety in Women Undergoing Mammography in Taiwan

Objective: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Taiwan. However, the discomfort of receiving mammograms reduces the willingness to screen.

Materials And Methods: This study using a quasi-experimental design and recruited 150 participants in a medical center, Taiwan. In the control group, only provided traditional health education sheets, the experimental group has joined the intervention of multimedia health education. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Visual Analogue Scale, respectively, were used to compare the differences in anxiety and pain between the two groups before and after receiving mammography.

Results: After the intervention, the experimental group's state anxiety score was significantly lower than that of the control group (30.63 ± 8.43 vs. 33.77 ± 10.74, p < .05). However, there was no significant difference in pain scores (4.13 ± 2.37 vs. 4.57 ± 2.31; p = .25).

Conclusions: Younger, prior experience with mammography, and high trait anxiety affect pain and state anxiety of women undergoing mammography. The multimedia health education intervention could reduce anxiety effectively, but it does not significantly relieve the pain undergoing mammography.