Magnitude of Preoperative Anxiety and Its Associated Factors Among Elective Adult Surgical Patients at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical Collage

Abstract

Background: Preoperative anxiety is an unpleasant sensation characterized by uneasiness, tension and apprehension in anticipation of anesthesia and surgery. It causes hypertension, tachycardia and sweating. It can lead to hemodynamic instability during anesthesia, increased anesthetic dosage, increased postoperative pain and increased analgesic consumption. This study aims to determine magnitude of preoperative anxiety and associated factors among elective adult surgical patient. Methods:. After ethical clearance was obtained from Institutional Review Board of SPHMMC, a cross-sectional study was conducted on 206 elective adult surgical patients at SPHMMC, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, between August 1 – 31, 2021 GC. Data was collected using the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety Information Scale (APAIS) the night before surgery. The anxiety Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used to assess the relative significance of common anxiety causing factors. Descriptive and inferential analysis using logistic regression was carried out using SPSS for windows version 26 to identify predictors of preoperative anxiety. The strength of the association was assessed using odds ratio and 95% CI. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: The magnitude of preoperative anxiety was 62.9%. The mean total anxiety score was 11.1 and 81.2% of patients had a moderate to high information desire. Higher educational status, lack of previous surgical experience, presence of preoperative pain, lack of preoperative information provision and high information desire have been found significantly associated with preoperative anxiety. Waiting for surgery, fear of not awakening from anesthesia and fear of postoperative pain were top 3 concerns for patients. Conclusion: A high level of preoperative anxiety was observed. Majority of patients had moderate to high information desire but only few (36.6%) were provided with adequate preoperative information regarding anesthesia and surgery. Patient’s level of anxiety and need for information should be assessed preoperatively and appropriate measures provided to alleviate anxiety before surgery. Key words: Anxiety; preoperative anxiety; APAIS.