Effect of informed consent for administration of intravenous contrast material in the anxiety level of patients submitted to computed tomography exams

Abstract

Purpose: Evaluation and relation of the state and trait anxiety level in patients before the delivery of informed consent with patients after that, and the evaluation of eventual relations between psychometric tests and sociodemographic characteristics. Methods and Materials: The present study is quasi-experimental. The total sample of 161 patients was divided in a control group and an experimental group, and then state-trait anxiety inventory was applied to both, after the sociodemographic interview and always after the consent of participation of the patient. Results: At a 95 % confidence interval, the intergroup difference between means of state anxiety ranged from -0.929 and -0.810. The value of t student test was -28.701 (df = 159 and 2-tail sig = 0.000). On the other hand, the intergroup difference between means of trait anxiety ranged from -0.141 and -0.022. The value of t student test was -2.722 (df = 159 e 2-tail sig = 0.007). Application of Spearman’s Ro revealed the correlation between values of state and trait anxiety based in a non-normal approximation: for control group 0.409 (sig = 0.000) and for experimental group 0.321 (sig = 0.004), whereas it did not reveal any statistically significant correlation between sociodemographic characteristics and psychometric tests. Conclusion: There exists a significant intergroup difference between the anxiety state and the anxiety trait. A significant correlation is verified between state and trait anxiety within each group, what is not verified between psychometric tests and sociodemographic characteristics.