Pre‐operative parental anxiety

Abstract

SummaryThis stuclqj attempts to identijy the incidence and specific sources of anxiety in the parents of children udniitted to hospital focused on how parental attitudes may contribute to the child's response in this situation [I, 2,6], rather than on the detrimental effects upon the parents themselves and the potential for the development of stress-induced psychological illness states.The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of clinically significant anxiety and its specific sources in a group of parents whose children were to undergo elective surgery. We attempted to identify factors which would allow the identification of 'high-risk' parents, and to establish useful ameliorative measures. Subjects and methodsThe study was conducted at the Duchess of Kent Children's Hospital, Hong Kong. Those eligible for admission to the study were the accompanying parents of any child of 13 years of age or less admitted for elective general, orthopaedic, or dental surgery. Parents were recruited only on those days when a bilingual Cantonese/English interviewer was available (either a member of the nursing staff or one of the authors [L.C.]) and parents of all children admitted on these days were approached. When a child was accompanied by both parents only one was recruited, if applicable the parent staying in hospital with the child.Assessment took place after the parents and children had completed a ward familiarisation programme, but before pre-operative visits by medical staff. Parents were given an explanation of the study and issued with the study questionnaire to be completed and returned to the interviewer, who drew their attention to any omissions.The assessment questionnaire consisted of four sections. The first collected demographic data (Appendix I); the second consisted of the Leeds Self-Assessment of Depression and Anxiety questionnaire [7]; the third and fourth N. Thompson

Giving parents written information about children's anesthesia: Are setting and timing important?

“…Parents were very anxious at the time of the presurgical assessment clinic and this did not diminish or increase on the day of surgery and is consistent with previous research on parental preoperative anxiety (5,6). Anxiety was not related to the child's previous anesthetic or type of surgery, in contrast to previous research (6) and may indicate that unmet information needs or other factors contribute to high parental anxiety.…”

“…Overall, the majority of the parents, 56% (23) stated they would have preferred to receive the information about anesthetic at the presurgical assessment clinic visit. However, 31% (6) of those who received the information by post and 14% (3) of those who received the information at the presurgical assessment clinic said that they preferred to receive the information by post.…”

Preoperative psychological preparation for children undergoing ENT operations: a comparison of two methods

“…( 12), Thompson et al . ( 13) and Vessey et al . ( 14), who all reported extreme parental discomfort by the presence at mask induction of anaesthesia, and recommended more effective parent–staff relationship and utilization of parents at that time.…”

Threat perception, anxiety and noncompliance with preoperative fasting instructions among mothers of children attending elective same day surgery

“…Avoidance is a coping mechanism that decreases anxiety. Previous studies assessing noncompliance and procrastination of medical procedures demonstrated that when a situation is a perceived as threatening, it leads to a higher anxiety, and this in turn may lead to adopt a coping mechanism of avoidance, procrastination or noncompliance [23,48,53,54].…”