The effect of Counseling on Anxiety in Women with Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening Results, Lamphun Hospital

Abstract

Women who have abnormal cervical screening results may have an impact on their mental state and it can cause stress, anxiety, fear, and sometimes skepticism about the diagnosis. This research is quasi-experimental to compare mean pre-post counseling anxiety scores within the group and between the experimental and control groups. The sample was women with abnormal cervical cancer screening results, Lamphun Hospital. Classified into experimental and control groups, 30 cases per group. The tools used in the experiment included a series of counseling activities for women with abnormal cervical cancer screening results, developed according to the person centered theory of Rogers (1996). The tools used to collect the data include personal data records and anxiety assessments (STAI form Y-1) of Spielberger developed and translated into Thai by Orphan Lueboontawatchai (2020). The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics, as follows Fisher’s exact probability test, Paired sample t-test and independent t-test.

The results showed that after counseling, the anxiety scores between the experimental and control groups differed statistically significantly at the level of 0.05. The experimental group had low anxiety scores (mean=37.16, SD=8.21). Meanwhile, the control group had a moderate anxiety score. (mean=46.46, SD=6.65).

Therefore; this series of counseling activities for women with abnormal cervical cancer results reduces anxiety and it also helps women with abnormal cervical cancer results to undergo effective diagnosis in the next step.