Effect of multimedia health education on perceived discomfort among women undergoing mammography

Most of women in Egypt and other developing countries lack knowledge about mammography and its use decrease although breast tumor increase. They reported discomfort during mammography and considered it a deterrent to future screening.

To determine effect of multimedia health education on perceived discomfort (painand anxiety) among women undergoing mammography.

A quasi-experimental research design was utilized on a convenient sample of 100 women who presented to general surgery department of Menofia University Hospital and underwent mammography after breast examination. The sample was randomly assigned into two equal groups. The Pre-procedure multimedia health education about mammography was specific for the study group only. Data were collected using the following three tools: 1- Structured Interview Questionnaire II- Anxiety Questionnaire and III- VRS to assess sociodemographic /Patient's clinical data, anxiety, and pain severity respectively. Anxiety was measured twice pre- procedure (in outpatient clinic and in mammography unit) and pain was measured post procedure for all studied subjects.

Prior the procedure, there was no significant difference between the Study (47.18±10.8) and control (47.3±11.52) groups regarding the anxiety levels in the first measurement (p>0.05), but study group had lower anxiety scores (36.4±9.3) than control (52.2±9.82) in the second measurement (p >0. 0.05). Post procedure, there was no significant difference regarding perceived pain (p>0.05).

The present study concluded that Pre- mammography multimedia patient education had positive effect on decreasing women anxiety prior the procedure but did not affect pain during the procedure. Therefore providing proper and sufficient education about different aspects of breast diseases and mammography screening method is effective on anxiety.