effect of rosa aromatherapy on anxiety before cardiac catheterization: a randomized controlled trial

background and objectives: most patients experience moderate to severe anxiety before cardiac catheterization. this study aimed to investigate the effect of rosa aromatherapy on anxiety before cardiac catheterization. methods: in this randomized controlled trial, 60 patients who met the inclusion criteria were conveniently sampled and randomly allocated to the experimental and control groups. patients in the control group received routine care. in the experimental group, patients received routine care and rosa aromatherapy for eighteen minutes. the level of anxiety was measured immediately before, and after the treatment. results: in the stages before and after the study, there were no significant differences between the two groups in the terms of the mean scores of state and total anxiety. however, the mean score of trait anxiety in the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group. furthermore, there was no significant difference between pre- and post-treatment in both groups. conclusion: most of the patients experience moderate to severe anxiety before cardiac catheterization. the findings of this study demonstrate that aromatherapy, as administered in this study, is not beneficial.