Assignment #21: Annotated Bibliography 3

Almalki, Mohammed Saleh, et al. "Assessment of Preoperative Anxiety among Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery." Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine, vol. 69, no. 4, 15 Oct. 2017, pp. 2329-2333. EBSCOhost, doi:10.12816/0041537.

This article contains a study performed on patients undergoing elective surgery that assessed the subjects’ level of preoperative anxiety as well as its predictors. Using the APAIS, which contains the statements “I am worried about the anesthetic.”, “The anesthetic is on my mind continually.”, “I would like to know as much as possible about the anesthetic.”, “I am worried about the procedure.”, “The procedure is on my mind continually.”, and “I would like to know as much as possible about the procedure.”, patients were surveyed on a 1-5 scale to assess their level of anxiety 24 hours before their operation. While patients of elective surgery are believed to have lower levels of anxiety, the study reported a relatively high level among the subjects. This survey also concluded that patients were more concerned about the surgery than the anesthesia and reported the highest scores in needing information on the operation. (Almalki et al., 2330). As for the predictors, age group, gender, martial status, previous experience of surgery, availability of family support, and type of anesthesia were assessed. A t-test was conducted to test an association between these important predictors and preoperative anxiety and statistically significant results were obtained for age group, gender, availability of family support, and type of anesthesia. The patients going under general anesthesia, with younger age, female gender, and little family support reported the highest level of anxiety. (Almalki et al., 2330). Discussing the conclusions of the study, it is noted that the results reflect “…the insufficiency or ambiguity of the information provided to the patients about their surgery” and that “…the healthcare staff should spend more time in the provision of information about the surgery in a clear and understandable matter.” (Almalki et al., 2332). The Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine publishes original papers, reviews, reports, opinion papers, and editorials in the field of medicine, making this excerpt a credible source. Additionally, this article was retrieved from Galileo, a website known to provide reliable information to students.The results of this study are important to my research because it shows that patients undergoing elective surgery (which most eye surgeries fall into the category of) have high levels of anxiety. The study makes inferences about the types of patients who are more susceptible to preoperative anxiety and these predictors should be assessed by doctors in order for an adequate plan for reducing anxiety to be established. The results stress the importance of informing patients of their surgery which supports my prior research.