Preoperative Anxiety and Fears among Adult Surgical Patients in Baghdad Teaching Hospital, Iraq

Background: Surgery was suggested as a major life change that negatively affects the patient’s recovery and post-operative pain. Objectives: The study aims to assess the preoperative anxiety levels among surgical patients, to determine the fears related to surgery and to find out the relationships between some variables; age, sex, marital status, educational level and experience of previous surgery and level of anxiety. Methodology: a cross-sectional study was conducted on patients undergoing surgery under a general anesthesia in general surgery unit of Baghdad Teaching Hospital from 1st August 2018 to 30th May 2019. Results: the current study indicated that all patients 80 (100%) were experience a preoperative anxiety in different levels; 36.2% of them had a high level of anxiety, 32.5% had a moderate level of anxiety and (31.2%) had a low level of anxiety. The main source of patients’ fears was; fear of death (51.2%), post-operative wound pain (48.8%), and fear of post-operative nausea and vomiting (47.5%) There was a significant relationship between age and level of anxiety. No difference in level of anxiety in respect to gender and previous surgery.