Parental Anxiety in children undergoing surgery, an observational study

Surgery and Hospitalisation of a child and has a very stressful consequence for the child and their parents. Perioperative anxiety is a common phenomenon and it starts from the admission till child get discharged cured.   [2,3]. Various literature described a high level of parental anxiety in the child’s preoperative period. Mothers are more prone to experience anxiety before their child’s surgery than fathers are and divorced parents and parents with lower educational levels rate themselves as significantly more anxious preoperatively. The parental anxiety usually transferred to the child, which leads to the stressful and very anxious child before surgery. 4   Increased preoperative anxiety in children has been shown to correlate with increased postoperative pain, analgesic requirements and long-lasting psychological effects on the child’s response to subsequent medical care and interference with normal development .4

 Education plays important role in controlling anxiety with low education level was significantly associated with anxiety and depression.5 Furthermore, some study also shows that Parental anxiety levels did not correlate with civil or educational status 4.

Cultural and ethnic background influences the anxiety of parents and children. Apart from this, there are almost negligible Indian data or studies available about the parental anxiety in preop area.

 Hence, we plan this study to identify the prevalence of level of anxiety in parents of children who will undergo various surgeries and their relationship with the education level, financial status of parent, age & sex of the child in the preoperative area.