J Nurs Acad Soc.  1979 Jun;9(1):9-22.

Comparison of Surgical Patients' State Anxiety by Sex, Area of Operation, and Family Planning

• Park SY

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to compare the state anxiety of surgical patients by sex (male/female), area of operation (sex-organ/non sex-organ), and family planning (having the plan of child-bearing/having no plan of child-bearing). One hundred sixty patients who were to get surgical operation were equally divided into eight groups resulted from combination of variables of sex, area of operation, and family planning. The state axiety of surgical patients was measured in terms of the discrepancy score between the state anxiety score on the State- Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) administered at a day before operation and the trait anxiety score on it which was administered at a day before discharge. In order to test statistically the differences among mean scores of the state anxiety obtained by eight groups, multiple comparisons were carried out by Scheffe method. The results of this study led to the conclusions that, (1) there was no significant sex difference in the state anxiety of surgical patients, when the area of operation and the family planning variables were disregarded, (2) the state anxiety of patients who were to get operation of their sex-organ was significantly higher than that of patients who were to get operation on the parts other than their sex-organ, when variables of the sex and the family planning were not taken into account, (3) there was no significant sex difference in the state anxiety of patients who were to get operation on the parts other than their sex-organ, when the family planning variable was disregarded, (4) the state anxiety of female patients who were to get operation on their sex-organ was significantly higher than the state anxiety of male patients who were to get operation on their sex-organ, when the family planning variable was not taken into account.

MeSH Terms

Anxiety*
Family Planning Services*
Female
Humans
Male
Sex Characteristics