Effect of multimedia education on anxiety and pain in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a Solomon four-group randomized controlled trial

Preoperative anxiety and postoperative pain pose significant challenges in surgical settings, often leading to various physical and psychological complications. This study aimed to assess the impact of multimedia education on anxiety levels and pain among candidates undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy. In a clinical trial employing Solomon’s four-group design, 80 candidates for laparoscopic cholecystectomy were enrolled. They were selected through convenience sampling and randomly allocated to four groups: intervention group with pre-test (E1), intervention group without pre-test (E2), control group with pre-test (C1), and control group without pre-test (C2). Multimedia education was administered to the intervention groups. Data were collected using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) for anxiety assessment and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain measurement, then analyzed using SPSS-22 software. Preoperative state anxiety levels in groups E1 and E2 were significantly lower compared to C1 and C2 (38.6 ± 7.32, 38.1 ± 8.83, 46.3 ± 11.57, and 45.8 ± 9.57, respectively; p = 0.006). However, there was no significant difference in state anxiety levels 24 h post-surgery nor in trait anxiety levels before and 24 h after surgery. Moreover, there was no significant difference in mean pain scores 24 h post-surgery among the groups. The findings indicate that multimedia education can effectively reduce preoperative anxiety in patients undergoing surgery. However, it did not significantly impact anxiety and pain levels post-surgery. Multimedia education may be considered as a supplementary approach to standard preoperative care protocols.