Abstract
Rationale: Only few data are available on psychological impact of asbestos exposure. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of delivering information on anxiety before and after CT-scan in the large Asbestos Related Disease COhort (ARDCO).
Methods: Between September 2011 and March 2012, the 4339 remaining subjects of the ARDCO cohort were invited to perform a CT-scan and to fill a Hospital Anxiety Depression (HAD) scale and a self-questionnaire concerning knowledge about asbestos-related risks. Half of them randomly selected received precise information on asbestos-related diseases incidence issued from the cohort previous analyses. Six months after CT-can all the subjects filled a 2nd HAD scale.
Results: At 10/01/2013, 1781 subjects had returned their 1st HAD scale and 321 (18.1%) of them were anxious (defined by an anxiety score equal or greater than 11). Eight hundred and forty three (47.3%) have received an information letter on asbestos-related diseases incidence issued from the cohort analyses. The information letter had a significant impact on knowledge about asbestos health risks and a non statistically significant impact on anxiety before CT-scan. Subjects who received and read the information letter had less anxiety after CT-scan than those who did not receive the letter or declared that they did not read it (13% versus 19% p=0.02).
Conclusion: Specific information about personal result after CT-scan must be provided to subjects involved in CT-scan surveillance to prevent anxiety. This should be particularly important in subjects with high level of self-perceived exposure as we had already found in this cohort of a strong correlation between asbestos exposure self-perception and anxiety.
- © 2014 ERS
