The Relationship Between COVID-19 Anxiety and Preoperative Anxiety During the Pandemic.
Funda Çetinkaya, Kevser Sevgi Unal Aslan
PMID 36609135WHAT IT FOUND
Surgical patients with higher coronavirus anxiety also had higher anxiety about anesthesia and surgery.
The association was seen in 228 patients, but it does not show one caused the other.
Key findings
01The patients' mean preoperative anxiety score was 15.86 ± 6.44, and their mean coronavirus anxiety score was 6.63 ± 3.61.
02Higher coronavirus anxiety scores were related to higher total preoperative anxiety scores, higher anxiety about anesthesia and surgery, and higher desire for information.
03Preoperative fear was significantly associated with both preoperative anxiety and coronavirus anxiety.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was done in the surgical clinics of one hospital, so it may not apply to all patients undergoing elective surgery. It was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that coronavirus anxiety caused preoperative anxiety. Anxiety was measured with scales only, and detailed causes of coronavirus anxiety were not evaluated. People with psychiatric disease, psychotic diagnosis, anxiety medication use, and emergency surgery were excluded, so it may not apply to those groups. Only 228 of 398 approached patients met criteria, and the paper does not describe why the others did not participate.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the positive relationship as proof that coronavirus anxiety caused preoperative anxiety. This was a cross-sectional association in one hospital, and the study did not test whether reducing coronavirus anxiety lowers surgical anxiety.