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Oncology
Original research
Scanxiety: a scoping review about scan-associated anxiety
  1. Kim Tam Bui1,2,
  2. Roger Liang1,
  3. Belinda E Kiely1,2,3,
  4. Chris Brown3,
  5. Haryana M Dhillon4,5,
  6. Prunella Blinman1,2
  1. 1Department of Medical Oncology, Concord Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, New South Wales, Australia
  2. 2Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
  3. 3NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
  4. 4Psycho-Oncology Cooperative Research Group, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
  5. 5Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-Based Decision-Making, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Prunella Blinman; prunella.blinman{at}health.nsw.gov.au

Abstract

Objectives To identify available literature on prevalence, severity and contributing factors of scan-associated anxiety (‘scanxiety’) and interventions to reduce it.

Design Systematic scoping review.

Data sources Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid PsycINFO, Ovid Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Scopus, EBSCO CINAHL and PubMed up to July 2020.

Study selection Eligible studies recruited people having cancer-related non-invasive scans (including screening) and contained a quantitative assessment of scanxiety.

Data extraction Demographics and scanxiety outcomes were recorded, and data were summarised by descriptive statistics.

Results Of 26 693 citations, 57 studies were included across a range of scan types (mammogram: 26/57, 46%; positron-emission tomography: 14/57, 25%; CT: 14/57, 25%) and designs (observation: 47/57, 82%; intervention: 10/57, 18%). Eighty-one measurement tools were used to quantify prevalence and/or severity of scanxiety, including purpose-designed Likert scales (17/81, 21%); the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (14/81, 17%) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (9/81, 11%). Scanxiety prevalence ranged from 0% to 64% (above prespecified thresholds) or from 13% to 83% (‘any’ anxiety, if no threshold). Mean severity scores appeared low in almost all measures that quantitatively measured scanxiety (54/62, 87%), regardless of whether anxiety thresholds were prespecified. Moderate to severe scanxiety occurred in 4%–28% of people in studies using descriptive measures. Nine of 20 studies assessing scanxiety prescan and postscan reported significant postscan reduction in scanxiety. Lower education, smoking, higher levels of pain, higher perceived risk of cancer and diagnostic scans (vs screening scans) consistently correlated with higher scanxiety severity but not age, gender, ethnicity or marital status. Interventions included relaxation, distraction, education and psychological support. Six of 10 interventions showed a reduction in scanxiety.

Conclusions Prevalence and severity of scanxiety varied widely likely due to heterogeneous methods of measurement. A uniform approach to evaluating scanxiety will improve understanding of the phenomenon and help guide interventions.

  • adult oncology
  • diagnostic radiology
  • anxiety disorders

Data availability statement

Data are available on reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information. The additional data are the data extraction forms for each study.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043215

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available on reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information. The additional data are the data extraction forms for each study.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @ktambui

    • Contributors KTB, PB, BEK, HD and CB contributed to the concept and design of this review. KTB developed and implemented the search strategy. KTB and RL independently screened and reviewed titles, abstracts and full-text articles for inclusion. KTB and RL independently extracted data from the included studies. PB, BEK, HD and CB contributed content expertise to ensure clinically relevant interpretation of the data. KTB drafted the initial manuscript, and RL, PB, BEK, HD and CB reviewed and approved the manuscript prior to submission.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.