*Margaret Mary Hansen
University of San Francisco
Oral Presentation – Research Track
Saturday, Sept 29, 2012: 12:35 PM – 12:55 PM – LK130
*Presenting Speaker
(Research in Progress)
Background
The use of mobile technologies for health promotion is prevalent today and perceived to be an effective way to deliver patient and healthcare professional education, medical information and interventions. Moreover, Complementary and Alternative Therapies (CAT) are increasingly being utilized in conjunction with Western medicine. Pain and anxiety are universal concepts and the literature indicates CAT may decrease pre- and post-operative anxiety, pain, and narcotic usage and increase patient satisfaction. The author’s aim for conducting this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to determine if the use of mobile technologies delivering CAT, specifically relaxation technique (RT), medical music intervention (MMI), nature landscape applications with (NLAM) and without music (NLAWM) compared with no intervention (control group) will assist in decreasing surgical patients’ anxiety and pain levels while increasing self-efficacy levels in post-operative healing.
Method
The RCT is designed to compare the effectiveness of RT, MMI and the provision of NLAM and NLAWM via Apple© iPods and iPads compared with no CAT (control group) on surgical patients’ (SP) pre-, intra-, post-operative and five day follow-up anxiety, pain and self-efficacy in healing levels. Pre-surgical patients (N=85), ages 18-75, male and female, scheduled for surgery at the same-day-care units at a hospital in Southwestern Iceland are currently being recruited to participate in this RCT. The hospital’s bioethics committee and the principle investigator’s university’s institutional review board of protection of human subjects approved the study. The consented SP are provided a demographic survey, State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) and General Perceived Self-Efficacy (GSE) four days prior to surgery to determine baseline directly prior to being given instructions on how to use the intervention via an iPod (RT or MMI) or iPad (NLAM or NLAWM). The SP completes the aforementioned questionnaires directly before, after, and five days following the surgery. The SP brings the iPod or iPad to the hospital on the day of surgery and uses the intervention directly prior to and following surgery. On day five the SP is asked to complete a satisfaction survey.
Results
The scientific value and anticipated gain is to determine if CAT delivered via mobile technology has a positive impact on reducing anxiety, pain and improve self-efficacy in healing for surgical patients. This study will further the research surrounding empirical evidence for the use of CAT in collaboration with the medical model of healing. The results of this study may support the development of CAT policy and procedure at the hospital and ultimately benefit many patients in the future. It may serve as a baseline study for future studies. The study is currently in progress and data collection will continue until the end of August 2012. Twenty SP have completed the study. Preliminary results will be presented and a manuscript for publication will be written and submitted.
