Phone-based intervention for anxiety management in primary health care users: A feasibility study.
Caroline Figueira Pereira, Maria Paula Bortoleti de Araújo, Divane de Vargas and 2 others
PMID 41770072WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses delivered a brief phone anxiety protocol to primary care adults; 1,171 eligible received it, scores fell 0.45 points immediately but not at 7 days, and no control group.
Key findings
01The phone-based RIA was feasible: 1,171 adults met eligibility criteria and accepted the intervention, and the final participation rate was 88.2%.
02Anxiety scores decreased by 0.45 points on average at the immediate post-intervention check, but no change was observed at the 7-day follow-up.
03Only 92 of 1,171 participants answered the subjective implementation question; of those, 78.26% would not change the intervention and 70.65% reported applying the techniques.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
No control group was used, so the observed anxiety score changes cannot be separated from time, phone contact, or other factors. Many participants did not complete post-intervention or follow-up: 606 started the post-intervention scale and 468 completed it, and 327 completed the 7-day follow-up. Only 92 of 1,171 participants answered the question about changing the intervention, so acceptability and practicality findings are incomplete. The sample was selected by convenience from four primary care units in São Paulo, so it may not represent other settings. People with hearing impairment, cognitive difficulties, or no telephone access were excluded, so findings may not apply to them. The STAI-S6 is brief but may not capture the full complexity of anxiety. The study was designed for feasibility and preliminary effectiveness, not to prove efficacy.
Declared interests
Funding: São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), grant 2021/12471-4, and CAPES, Finance Code 001. The supplied text does not state a competing-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that phone-based RIA reduces anxiety. It had no control group, the immediate drop was 0.45 points on the STAI-S6, and the 7-day change was not significant; many participants did not complete follow-up.