The evaluation of the level and reasons of anxiety for the patients who APPLY to anesthesiology policlinic

Objective: To determine the effects of demographic factors as age,education, gender, marital status on anxiety level and anxiety levels and reasons of the patients those will be operated electively. Materıal and Methods: 800 patients over 18 years those wil have elective surgery complete the questionnaire at the anesthesia outpatient clinic of Dokuz Eylül Medical School Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department. Patients those were; ASA I and III according to American Society of Anesthesiologists, literate, without neurologic and psychiatric disease, and not using any psychiatric drug and alcohol were included. Results: Of these 800 forms 700 completed forms were evaluated. Average age was 40.95 +-15.68 years (18-83). STAI-I score was 42.3+-9.7 (ranged between 21 and 77). The highest STAI-I value was found in 31-50 age group. Preoperative STAI-I value was higher in women when compared with men(p<0.001). When anesthesia history was evaluated 479 of the 700 patients were anesthesized before and STAI-I scores were higher in these patients(43.3+-9.4 vs. 41.8+-9.7). But this difference was not statistically significant(p=0.056). According to education level the number of the patients afraiding from awakening during surgery was significantly higher in university graduates(p=0.002). When the relation between the anesthesia anxiety scores and gender was evaluated women mostly anxious about the postoperative pain and her family (p=0.000 and p=0.000). Men mostly anxious for financial loss (p=0.101). Conclusion: In this study we evaluated the preoperative anxiety levels of the elective surgery patients; in women anxiety level was higher than men and STAI-I values were higher in the group over 51 years. It has been found that anxiety level of the patients who have not been anesthesized before is higher. In our study, it has been found that the group of patients between the age of 31-50 and above the age of 51, the STAI-I scores are higher. A reasonable relation between marital status and preoperative anxiety has not been found. When the relation between the type of operations that the patients have has been examined it has been seen that the patients of ophthalmic have the lowest and the patients of obstetric and gyna ecologic surgery have the highest level of anxiety.