Assessment of Preoperative Anxiety among Patients Attending a Preanaesthetic Check-up Clinic at a Tertiary Care Hospital, Odisha: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Anxiety during the preoperative period predisposes to postoperative complications such as increase in postoperative pain, delay of healing and prolonged hospital stay.Further, patients with a high level of preoperative anxiety require higher doses of anaesthetic agents and recover poorly. Due to these factors, each tertiary care hospital should have an idea about the prevalence of preoperative anxiety in their setting, so that appropriate preventive measures can be planned. Aim: To assess the prevalence of preoperative anxiety in patients attending the Preanaesthetic Check-up (PAC) clinic for elective surgeries and to find out the factors associated with anxiety among them. Materials and Methods: This hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in the PAC Clinic at Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (tertiary care hospital), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, from May to July 2018. The study included 100 patients, using convenient sampling technique, undergoing preanaesthetic check-up, before the proposed elective surgeries. A researcher made study tool, using Hamilton-A (HAM-A) scale, for assessing preoperative anxiety was used. Data was analysed using Epi Info software. A p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Among the sampled 100 study participants, preoperative anxiety was found to be present in 97, 72 of the study participants had mild anxiety, 14 had mild to moderate and 11 moderate to severe anxiety. Of the 97 participants who had preoperative anxiety, 7 (14.89%) of the females had moderate to severe anxiety as compared to 4 (8%) of males. The age group of 60-69 years and Christianity religion were found to be statistically significant factors associated with anxiety in the study population. Conclusion: The prevalence of preoperative anxiety among the study participants was found to be high. Preventive measures like counselling sessions to address their apprehensions should be planned to decrease the anxiety.

Keywords

• anaesthetic agents
• elective surgery
• hamilton-a scale