Parental Anxiety Before Elective Surgery in Pediatric Patients at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital

บทคัดย่อ

Introduction: Preoperative parental anxiety can affect postoperative complications such as the emergence delirium and long-term behavioral change in children. The appropriate strategies for reducing parental anxiety would improve the quality and satisfaction of anesthesia in pediatric patients. The objective of the study is to find the prevalence and potential causes of preoperative anxiety in parents whose children undergoing elective operation under general anesthesia at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. Methods: 383 parents of less than 15-year-old pediatric patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anesthesia at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital were evaluated for anxiety status, associating factors and satisfactory level by answering the questionaries. Primary outcomes were the prevalence of preoperative parental anxiety. Secondary outcomes were the factors associated with anxiety level and satisfaction of parents. Multivariate regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between variables. Results: The prevalence of state and trait anxiety were 39.7% and 41.0%, respectively. The patient’s age, extension of operation, and type of surgery possibly increased the preoperative parental anxiety. The potential relieving factors were the availability of preoperative information about surgical procedure and postoperative care. The average satisfactory score was 85.9±7.6 out of 100. Conclusion: More than 1/3 of parents had preoperative anxiety. Young patients, complex anesthetic or surgical procedures and availability of information were possibly associated with anxiety status of parents. However, the parental satisfactory level in this study was high.