A Study of Translation of Measure and Prevalence of Pre-operative Anxiety, and Patients’ Preference of Non-Pharmaceutical Pre-operative Anxiety Reduction Intervention in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Pre-operative anxiety remains a serious problem affecting surgical patients. The prevalence rate ranges between 60% to 80% percent among western surgical patients. Nothing is known about the prevalence of pre-operative anxiety among Nigerian Hausa speaking elective surgical patients. It is also not known what non-pharmaceutical pre-operative anxiety reduction interventions are preferable in reducing their anxiety before they undergo elective surgery. Participants: Thirty adult patients scheduled to undergo elective surgery in a tertiary health facility in north eastern Nigeria. Design/procedure: The study consists of three phases: Phase 1- translating and cross-cultural validation of Amsterdam Pre-operative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) into Nigerian Hausa Language. Phase 2- administering the translated scale to assess the prevalence of pre-operative anxiety among the study participants. Phase 3 - finding out which non-pharmaceutical pre-operative anxiety reduction interventions would the Hausa speaking elective surgical patients prefer in reducing their anxiety before they undergo elective surgery. Results: The translated Hausa and validated version of the scale (APAIS-H) has shown a good psychometric property with Cronbach's alpha of 0.82 for anxiety related to surgery subscale and 0.71 for information desire subscale respectively. The finding of phase 2 revealed that there is high prevalence of pre-operative anxiety among the Hausa speaking elective surgical patients. The patients' anxiety continues to increase in intensity as they approach their time of operation. Results of phase 3 shows that the Hausa speaking elective surgical patients have high preference for counselling services, information and education, video-film intervention and low preference for music therapy. Conclusion: There is high prevalence of pre-operative anxiety among the Hausa speaking elective surgical patients. It is therefore recommended that, before undergoing elective surgery, clinicians should assess the Hausa patients' pre-operative anxiety so as to provide them with their preferred pre-operative anxiety reduction interventions proportionate to their level of anxiety. The thesis argued that the translated and validated APAIS-H is be a good measure of assessment particularly of those Hausa patients who could not read and understand the English Language version of assessment tool.