Assessing the Relationship Between Preoperative Anxiety and Postoperative Recovery

Background: The potential for preoperative anxiety to negatively affect postoperative recovery remains a current, increasingly important issue that warrants further investigation. The primary objective of this study was to assess the relationship between preoperative anxiety and postoperative Recovery in patients. Methods: Designed as a cross-sectional study, this research included patients who had surgeries in the general surgery department at a university hospital from September 15, 2020, to January 31, 2021. The study gathered data through the use of the Patient Information Form, the Anxiety Specific to Surgery Questionnaire, and the Postoperative Recovery Index. The analysis of the data was carried out using the SPSS (version25.0) software package. Results: The study found that the average age of the patients was 54.28±15.4 years, and 60.0% of them were women. The average score on the Anxiety Specific to Surgery Questionnaire was 27.9±10.9. The average score on the Postoperative Recovery Index was 2.84±0.86 for measurements taken on days 0-3 and 1.82±0.64 for measurements taken on days 10-15. Upon examining each sub-dimension and the total scale scores, it was found that most patients experienced positive recovery. In conclusion, it was determined that patients exhibited moderate levels of anxiety specific to surgery. Conclusion: Postoperatively, they generally experienced significant difficulties in recovery during days 0-3, and moderate difficulties during days 10-15. It was also found that preoperative anxiety adversely affected postoperative recovery.