Investigation of anxiety and knowledge levels of patients before cataract surgery

This study was carried out in descriptive design in order to determine pre-operative anxiety and knowledge levels of cataract surgery patients. The data were collected from June 2018 to January 2019 at Suruç State Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology. The participants of the study consisted of 120 patients who applied and planned to undergo cataract surgery in the Suruç State Hospital Ophthalmology Clinic. A total of 104 patients who fulfilled the criteria of the study and were volunteer to participate included in the study. The data were collected by using a questionnaire including sociodemographic information and Spielberg's State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). SPSS for Windows version 24.0 package program was used in statistical analysis. The suitability of the normal distribution of the data Shaphiro Wilk test tested, compare two independent groups of variables that are not normal dispersion Mann whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test to compare more than two independent groups. Those scales with Cronbach Alpha coefficient of internal consistency reliability tested. Mean ± standard deviation for numerical variables and number and% for categorical variables were given as descriptive statistics. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. In our study, the state anxiety of the patients was calculated as 49.16±5.54 according to the STAI scale and the continuity anxiety related to the operation was calculated as 50.49±3.68. It shows that patients undergoing cataract surgery have moderate preoperative anxiety. The average age of the patients is 9.25 years, half of the boys and 62.02% 47.1 of the primary school graduates. 30.8% of patients see after surgery is the cause of the anxiety, the stress of 61.5% and to pray. It was determined that the patients' educational level, occupation, place of residence, who they live with, age, social security status, taking information about preoperative operation, smoking status did not affect the preoperative anxiety of the patients. As a result, cataract surgery before patients developed moderate anxiety. Cataract surgery cataract, surgery and after surgery of individuals be period as an informed, can be effective in reducing anxiety of patients. Key Words: Anxiety, Nursing, Cataract, Cataract Surgery, Preoperative Anxiety.