Effect of nature clip on anxiety and physiological parameters before gastric endoscopy: A randomized clinical trial

Majority of patients experience anxiety before endoscopy, which can affect their level of cooperation and endoscopy process. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intervention through audio-visual clip of nature on the level of anxiety and physiological parameters of patient’s candidate for gastric endoscopy.

This randomized clinical trial study was performed on 64 patients with permuted block randomization of age and sex that referred for gastric endoscopy. Initially, demographic information and a six-item Spielberger scale were completed. Then their pulse and blood pressure were measured and recorded by the same device in a sitting position. For the intervention group, a five-minute audio-video clip of nature was played by tablet and headphones, and for the control group, only routine actions were performed. In the next step, immediately after the intervention for the intervention group and after five minutes for the control group, the anxiety of the samples and pulse and blood pressure were measured and recorded again.

The results showed that the mean score of anxiety in the intervention group decreased from 17.53 ±2 to 15.71 ± 2 and in the control group from 17.65 ± 1.7 to 17.12 ± 1.6, which was statistically significant (P=0.001). Also, the mean difference of pulse, in the intervention and control groups were 2.5 ± 3.9 and -1.03 ±4.9 (P=0.003), systolic blood pressure in the intervention and control groups were 8.59 ±13.3 and 2.65 ± 9.8 (P=0.046) and diastolic blood pressure in the intervention and control groups were was 0.56 ± 10.1 and -4.78 ± 10.1 (P=0.040), respectively. These results indicated that intervention had a significant effect on all three parameters.

The findings of this study showed that the intervention could have a significant effect on anxiety and physiological parameters. Therefore, the use of nature audio-video clips can be considered as a measure to reduce the anxiety before gastric endocopy procedure.