How to relieve pre-operative parental anxiety before anesthesia: Chinese parental attitudes / 中华麻醉学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess Chinese parental requirement for relieving their preoperative anxiety,and their attitudes regarding the measures reducing their anxiety and to investigate the possible factors associated with increased anxiety.Methods One hundred and four pairs of pediatric patients (aged 2-12 yr,of ASA physical status Ⅰ or Ⅱ) undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia and their parents were enrolled in this study.The general data of the pediatric patients and their parents and parental requirement for relieving their preoperative anxiety,and their attitudes regarding the measures reducing their anxiety were obtained using a questionnaire.Parental and children's anxiety? levels were assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (m-YPAS),respectively.Results Parental anxiety levels were positively correlated with the children's anxiety levels (r =0.254).Parental desires to relieve their own anxiety under the personal direction of medical staff were significantly higher than the desires for the other measures; parental desires to relieve their own anxiety through parent-present induction of anesthesia (PPIA) were significantly lower than the desires for the other measures.The factors influencing parental attitudes included gender,educational level,preoperative anxiety level,and preoperative children' s anxiety level.Conclusion To relieve Chinese parental anxiety before surgery,the anesthesiologists should be aware that the majority of parents have a high desire to receive verbal instructions from medical staff before surgery was performed on their children and should provide enough information related to anesthesia and surgery; when PPIA is applied,parental desire for PPIA should be taken into full account; the anesthesiologists offer support and comfort for the parents properly.