Development of an animation to alleviate patient anxiety before endoscopic treatment

Background: eHealth is the use of technology aimed at improving health care and has garnered significant interest in the last decade. Preoperative anxiety is the feeling of unease before a procedure and has been linked to a reduced postoperative quality of life. The effect of eHealth on preoperative anxiety has previously been researched; however, its specific effect in endoscopic procedures remains unclear. An increase in the number of endoscopies performed has been associated with a substantial increase in preoperative anxiety. This anxiety is also shown to correlate with the amount of information shared with the patients prior to the procedure, indicating that an appropriate level of patient education and engagement is necessary to alleviate preoperative anxiety. However, not all forms of patient engagement may be effective in reducing preoperative anxiety; for instance, information pamphlets have previously shown no significant effect on anxiety as the information provided was found to be overwhelming for patients. Therefore, a more suitable and engaging approach, such as eHealth, may be required. Aim: The aim of this study was to develop an informative animation educating patients, about to undergo endoscopic procedures, on the common concerns associated with endoscopy. The animation was developed using information obtained from the available literature. Methodology: The methodology was divided into three stages: literature search, finding and coding similarities, and animation. The aim of the first stage was to identify in the literature the commonly expressed fears and worries associated with surgery that influence a patient's preoperative anxiety levels. The second stage was to find the commonalities between the papers identified from the literature and to analyse them, using a qualitative analytic method known as descriptive coding. Finally, the last stage aimed to collate all the relevant information into an animation that summarises the common fears and worries relating to the procedure, as well as how best to tackle them as the patient. Results: Three papers were identified as relevant to the research question. They were compiled into three separate word documents and imported into NVIVO. Using NVIVO, the information from the papers was then coded into five separate themes. These themes, with their respective distribution in all the three papers, were: fear of complications (44%); fear of cancellations (5%); lack of information (33%); feeling out of one’s element (16%); and concern for the family (3%). The development of the animation took the themes into consideration and provided ways to alleviate these fears and worries. Conclusion: The two most frequent themes revealed during the coding stage of the study (fear of complications (44%) and lack of information (33%) corroborate previous relevant studies in the literature. This study adds to the notion that patients currently receive inadequate information to effectively alleviate their preoperative anxiety. Therefore, this work highlights the need for information that is both presented in a manner that is conducive to effective patient engagement and specific to the individual patient’s concerns