The effect of preoperative education on anxiety levels and quality of life of patients undergoing elective surgery

Introduction: Preoperative anxiety is a common attitude in patients scheduled to undergo r surgery and represents with psychological and physical disturbances affecting postoperative recovery and quality of life (QoL). Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the effect of preoperative education on preoperative and postoperative anxiety and postoperative QoLin patients scheduled to undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) and inguinal hernia (IH) repair, without prior surgical experience. Methods: Patients scheduled to underwent LC and IH repair were randomly assigned to control group (CG) and to interventional group (IG). The 'State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults' questionnaire was used to validate anxiety before surgery and after 3 months postoperatively. The 36- item Medical Outcomes Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was used to investigate mental, physical and emotional domains of QoL. The CG was received only routine information by doctors. The IG received additionally oral information plus a booklet from an experienced surgical nurse. Data analyzed using paired and unpaired t-test and Αnova tests. The level of statistical signicance was set at ≤ 5%. Results: Four hundred and fty patients were scheduled to undergo either LC or IH repair, with 200 assigned to the IG and 250 to the CG. Age, sex, marital status and educational level were similar in both groups. Postoperative State anxiety was signicantly lower in IG (p<0.001). Patients of the IG showed greater improvement in all of the SF-36 scale domains, specically in physical functionality (p<0.001), physical role (p<0.001), physical pain (p<0.001), general health (p<0.001), vitality (p<0.001), social functionality (p<0.001), emotional role (p<0.001) and mental health (p<0.001). There was not mortality or signicant morbidity in both groups. Conclusion: Preoperative education by an experienced nurse with oral and written information improves perioperative state anxiety and QoL. This method could be used for all surgical patients, irrespective for the surgical procedure.