Abstract
Aim. Preoperative anxiety is a risk factor for various psychophysiological reactions in patients, which increases need for anaesthesia, prolonged hospitalisation, and overall convalescence. The purpose of the study was to detect the incidence of anxiety in patients before neurosurgical operations and assess the impact of time to operation and selected demographic factors on the occurrence of anxiety.
Material and methods. The study was approved by the Hospital Ethics Committee. A cross-sectional study design was used. The sample consisted of 108 respondents. The average age was 58.16 years (SD = 12.49). Data were collected in a preoperative period in patients before their planned operations. Preoperative anxiety was assessed by the Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale. The data were analysed with the IBM SPSS Statistics 22, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Wilcoxon test, and the Pearson correlation coefficient.
Results. Anxiety and need for information varied over time to the date of operation with an increasing trend between Measurements 1 and 2 (p < 0.001) and between Measurements 1 and 3 (p < 0.001), with a greater increase in females. No statistically signifi cant relationship between preoperative anxiety and age was found.
Conclusions. The fi ndings support the need for preoperative anxiety assessment in neurosurgical patients.