Calm or not calm – Factors contributing to a patient’s current state of mind

Aim

The aim of the study “Calm or Not Calm: The Question of Anxiety in the Perianesthesia Patient” was to investigate whether patients feel anxiety (calm or not calm) preoperatively before undergoing an elective day care surgery and also to elucidate the factors contributing to a patient’s current state of mind.

Method

A prospective survey of 163 participants who were to undergo day care surgery, scheduled for elective hand, general, orthopaedic or urological surgery. The inclusion criterion were classification to; American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) class I–II ; the ability to speak and read Swedish; age ≥17 years.

Questionnaire

The participants were asked to tick one of the
statements;
‘‘I feel calm’’
‘‘I don’t feel calm’’
All participants responding were asked to specify the degree of his or her current state of mind. Participants responding ‘‘I don’t feel calm’’ were asked to specify the degree of his or her noncalmness, i.e. anxiety, on a visual numeric rating scale (NRS) graded from 1–10, where 1 = slightly anxious and 10 = very anxious.

Conclusion

The results show that 70 of the 161 participants felt calm before surgery. A significantly higher proportion of the men felt calm.
   Fifty noncalm participants graded anxiety to 5,4 on NRS. They explained their state of mind with statements about the situation, related to what might happen to them.