The assesment of parental anxiety in pediatric surgery cases

The study was designed aiming to determine the factors that increase the severity of anxiety which already exists in the parents whose children will have surgery operation and what we can do to decrease the severity of anxiety .Two hundred parents were entered into the study and they were asked to complete the socialdemographic data form, Beck Anxiety Scale, State Anxiety Scale and Trait Anxiety Scale.The mean age of women was 31.66 and the mean age of men was 34.92. We determined that the mean age of women?s was smaller than the mean value of men?s age. The mean score of Beck Anxiety scales, that performed by mothers was 17.56, it was higher than the fathers? mean score and found statistically significant (p=0.000). The mean Trait Anxiety Scale score of the mothers was 47.69. It was higher than the mean scores of the fathers and found statistically significant (p=0.002). It was statistically found significant that the mean Beck Anxiety Scale score of two years and over two years old children?s parents has greater value than the one year old children?s parents (p=0.020). The mean State Anxiety Scale score of girls? family was greater than the mean score of boys? family and it was found statistically significant (p=0.049).The mean State Anxiety Scale score of the parents who are unlettered or graduated from primary school was greater than the parents who are graduated from high school or college and it was found statistically significant (p=0.026). The mean Beck Anxiety score of parents with low occupational level or unemployed and housewives both was greater than themean score of the parents with average or high occupational levels and it was found statistically significant (p=0.029). The mean Beck Anxiety score of parents with large family was smaller than the mean score of the parents with nuclear and fragmented family(p=0.043). The mean Beck Anxiety score of parents whose families had surgery at least once or more times was smaller than the parents whose family had not and it was found statistically significant. The mean Trait Anxiety Scale score of parents whose children had a,b or c type of surgery operations was smaller than the parents whose children had d or e type of surgery operation and it was found statistically significant(p=0.036).In conclusion, occurance of anxiety at preoperative term is a natural result in parents whose children will have surgery operation. By the results of our study we conclude that the parents who have girls and low educational levels need to be informed more in preoperative term and the parents with low socioeconomic status and the mothers both have continuous anxiety and their anxiety severity increases in preoperative term so parents need to be informed more about children?s diseases, type of surgery operation and the technique of anesthesia.