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Background Preoperative anxiety is a common patients' reaction related to serious adverse events post-operatively. The aim was to explore the characteristics of cardiac surgery patients experiencing high preoperative anxiety. Methods A total of 127 patients (mean age 64.48 years; 34.6% women) assessed their level of anxiety while waiting for surgery, need for information, depression and illness perception with the use of Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale, Visual Analogue Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, respectively. Clinical and socio-demographic data were gathered using structured interview and medical files review. K-means and hierarchical cluster analyses were performed. a 0.05 was considered significant. ResultsThe analysis revealed two different clusters: Cluster 1 involved 46 patients (36.2%; mean age 58.91); Cluster 2 involved 81 patients (63.8%; mean age 67.65). Patients from Cluster 2 had significantly higher anxiety on the day prior to surgery (12.09 vs. 7.93), at a decision stage (6.16 vs. 3.85) and during prehospitalization week (8.01 vs. 4.41). These patients also had more negative illness perception (43.84 vs. 28.35), depressive symptoms (4.9 vs. 2.5) and higher information desire (6.68 vs. 5.54) than patients from Cluster 1. Female sex and planned combined surgery were additional contributors to higher anxiety. Conclusions Patients scheduled for cardiac surgery experienced high anxiety throughout the presurgery period. Early intervention addressing not only anxiety but also illness perception and depressive symptoms seems vital. The results can be helpful in planning tailored, needs-based psycho-educational intervention which might improve patients' preoperative psychological state.

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