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Introduction: Child hospitalization is one of the sources of anxiety for both the child and his/her parents. Among the strategies for reducing anxiety, non-pharmacological strategies are as important as pharmacological. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of educative storybooks and face-to-face education on anxiety of hospitalized children and their mothers. Methods: The research project had a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test. The subjects consisted of 81 hospitalized children, aged six to nine years old and mothers in Sabzevar, who were not selected randomly by method. Data collection tools were demographic information questionnaire, Scale of Facial Self-Reported Anxiety and the State Anxiety Inventory. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 20) and Descriptive Statistics, Shapiro-Wilk, Chi-Square, Paired Sample T Test, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Honestly Significant Difference (HSD). Results: After the intervention, the results of this study showed that there was a significant difference in anxiety of children, between the educative storybook group and routine group (Pvalue = 0.006). However, the differences between the educative storybook with face-to-face education groups and face-to-face education with routine groups were not significant (P-value > 0.05). There were significant differences in anxiety of mothers between the educative storybook with routine groups (P-value < 0.001) and face-to-face education group with routine group (Pvalue = 0.001). However, the difference between the educative storybook and face-to-face education groups was not significant (P-value = 0.079). Conclusions: The results demonstrated that educative storybooks and face-to-face education could reduce the mothers' anxiety. It can be recommended as a popular, practical and efficient tool to prepare children for hospitalization.

Introduction: Patients with myocardial infarction (MI) who were admitted to CCU experience anxiety. Anxiety increases the risk of ischemia and worsens the prognosis of MI. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of inhaling lavender oil on anxiety levels and vital signs in MI patients. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was performed. Sixty patients with MI were randomly assigned to the intervention and control group. The intervention group inhaled the essential oil of Lavender for three days (20-30 min/day, 3times/day) using a non absorbent paper which was stained with three drops of lavender oil. In control group steriled water was used. Each patient was assessed before and after intervention for the following clinical parameters: anxiety by state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI) and vital sign by Vista monitoring. The data were analyzed using Chi-square, paired t-test and Analysis of Covariance. Results: Results showed statistically significant decrease in state and trait anxiety at the end of study from 60.26±9.29 to 41.56±7.57 (P<0.001) and 55.73±10.22 to 44.53±7.28 (P<0.001) respectively, but in the control group were observed statistically significant increase in state and trait anxiety (P<0.001). Also statistically significant decrease were observed in blood pressure at the end of the intervention (p<0.05). The values for state and trait anxiety and blood pressure decrease in the intervention group in comparison with the control group (P<0.001 and p<0.05, respectively). Conclusion: This study showed that inhalation of lavender oil can reduce state and trait anxiety level and blood pressure in patients with MI.

Cancer disease and its treatment methods affect the quality of life of those suffering from breast cancer. Nausea and vomiting are frequent side-effects of chemotherapy. Nowadays, complementary therapies are used along with routine treatments to control this disease. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of sucking ice bits with plain water on nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer. Methods In this clinical trial, participants were 60 breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. They were randomly divided into two groups of control and ice. The ice group received 30 bits of ice in 1 cc during chemotherapy, while control group received 30-cc tap water. Nausea was evaluated based on visual analog scale and vomiting was estimated based on the number of cases. The data were analyzed in SPSS software. Results The Mean±SD of nausea in ice group was 1.268±1.9 and in the control group it was 1.787±2.9 and this difference was statistically significant after intervention (P=0.015). The mean of vomiting in ice group was 0.406±0.2 and in the control group it was 0.449±0.266, but this difference was not significant; i.e. the intervention had no significant effect on vomiting (P=0.549). Conclusion Sucking ice bits containing plain water had high effect on reducing nausea caused by chemotherapy but it had no effect on occurrence of vomiting.