title: Preoperative anxiety in candidates for heart surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal of this study was to evaluate preoperative anxiety and its predisposing factors in a group of adult patients who were candidate for any kind of heart surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated preoperative anxiety in 300 patients undergoing heart surgery whose ages ranged between 18-65 years. Relationship of probable demographic factors like gender, educational level, marital status, number of children, family support, opium addiction, occupational status, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) with anxiety level of the patients were evaluated. To determine anxiety, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was completed by the subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Descriptive anxiety levels showed that mean of state and trait anxiety of our studied patients were in moderate scaling. Correlation between state and trait anxiety was more prominent in females (r = 0.80) than in males (r = 0.70) (p < 0.001). Distribution of males and females was significantly different (p = 0.048). All the patients had significantly different underlying diseases (p = 0.018), opioid addiction (yes/no) was significantly different in all of the patients (p < 0.001), while family support (yes/no) was not significantly different in all of the patients (p = 0.453). There were significant differences between mean of preoperative anxiety at different LVEF values of any EF level (p < 0.001, F = 6.47); those who had LVEF of more than 50% had significantly lower mean anxiety scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Preoperative psychiatric consultation should be focused more on women and patients with higher EF. Moreover, physical activity strength may be effective on reducing preoperative anxiety.
authors: Assistant Professor, Surgical Oncology Research Center, Imam Reza Hospital AND Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors: Mehdi
authors: M
authors: Fathi
authors: Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Seyed Mostafa
authors: SM
authors: Alavi
authors: Assistant Professor, Surgical Oncology Research Center, Imam Reza Hospital AND Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors: Marjan
authors: M
authors: Joudi
authors: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Gorgan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran.
authors: Mitra
authors: M
authors: Joudi
authors: Psychologist, Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Helia
authors: H
authors: Mahdikhani
authors: Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Rasool
authors: R
authors: Ferasatkish
authors: Epidemiologist, Shahid Rajaee Heart Center, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Houman
authors: H
authors: Bakhshandeh
authors: Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, School of Mathematical Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
authors: Mehdi
authors: M
authors: Jabbari Nooghabi
keywords: Anxiety; Heart Surgery; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)