Effectiveness of Pre-Anesthesia Clinic Consultation on Anxiety Reduction Among Adult Surgical Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study
Abstract
Mathilda worku, Mebratu Kebede, Abdurazak Naser and Belay Zawdie
Background: In the perioperative phase, surgical patients commonly encounter stress, which can influence various aspects of anesthesia, perioperative care, and recovery times. Addressing this, pre-anesthesia evaluations aim to mitigate perioperative anxiety. However, the extent to which such consultations effectively alleviate patient anxiety before surgery remains underexplored, with only a limited number of studies offering conflicting findings on the subject.
Objective: To assess the effectiveness of pre-anesthesia clinic consultation on anxiety reduction among adult surgical patients at Jimma University Medical Center, Jimma Southwest, Ethiopia.
Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted at Jimma University Medical Center, involving 114 surgical patients who underwent pre-anesthesia evaluation either at the pre-anesthetic clinic or upon admission to the ward during the study period. Data collection was performed through face-to-face interviews utilizing a semi-structured questionnaire. Preoperative anxiety levels were assessed using the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale before and after the intervention for both groups. Data integrity was ensured through comprehensive cleaning and validation using Epidata version 4.6. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 25, employing binary logistic regression to examine the frequency, percentage, and association between independent and dependent variables. Statistical significance was determined at a p-value of less than 0.05 through multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: The study examined 114 patients, aged between 18 and 74 years, with a mean age of 38.91 ± 13.89 years. Preoperative anxiety was present in 50.9% of the surgical patients. There was a statistically significant reduction in anxiety scores when comparing the change in mean scores from pretest to posttest between two groups: the clinic group had a mean reduction of 3.9 (95% CI: 3.47 to 4.35) and the ward group had a mean reduction of 2.6 (95% CI: 2.26 to 2.93), with a p-value of 0.001. Additionally, higher levels of anxiety were significantly associated with increasing age (p=0.003, AOR: 1.056, 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.10) and residency in a rural location (p=0.007, AOR: 0.293, 95% CI: 0.12 to 0.72).
Conclusion: we concluded that anesthesia evaluation taking place at the pre-anesthesia clinic is more effective in reducing preoperative anxiety as compared with the ward.