Anxiety levels and associated factors in children and their parents prior to adenotonsillectomy.

Authors

Dilek Konukbay, Ahmet Cinal, Dilek Yildiz

Published in

Journal of pediatric nursing. Sep 22, 2026. Epub Sep 22, 2026.

Abstract

This study aimed to determine preoperative anxiety levels and associated factors in children undergoing adenotonsillectomy and their parents.
Descriptive, cross-sectional.
One hundred fifty-one child-parent dyads were enrolled between February and July 2025 at a city hospital in Ankara, Türkiye. Children were aged 5-12 years and scheduled for elective adenotonsillectomy. Data were collected using the Modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (mYPAS), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State (STAI-State), and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Multivariable linear and binary logistic regression analyses identified factors independently associated with children's preoperative anxiety.
Mean parental age was 34.90 ± 6.20 years; mean child age was 6.99 ± 2.24 years. The mean mYPAS score was 44.55 ± 13.30; 62.3% of children were in the high-anxiety group. Parental STAI-State mean was 38.19 ± 4.94. Children's anxiety correlated positively with self-reported fear (Spearman's ρ = 0.372, p < .001) and negatively with age (Spearman's ρ = -0.211, p = .009). In the Three Wishes Test, most parents (84.1%) prioritized safe recovery, while 28.5% of children wished for their favorite toy. In multivariable linear regression, only child age (B = -1.58; p < .001) and child-reported fear score (B = 3.94; p < .001) independently predicted mYPAS total score (adjusted R² = 0.239). Logistic regression confirmed these findings: younger age and higher fear score increased the odds of high preoperative anxiety (adjusted odds ratios: 0.75 and 1.66, respectively).
Children demonstrated high levels of preoperative anxiety. Increasing age and lower child-reported fear scores were associated with lower preoperative anxiety levels. These findings underscore the importance of family-centered and age-sensitive preoperative nursing interventions.

PMID:
42786000
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 25 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.