Observational study uncovers distinct anxiety profiles in children undergoing elective surgery, indicating that high preoperative anxiety predicts greater distress and postoperative pain.
Key Points
To identify latent profiles of preoperative anxiety using physiological and behavioral indicators in pediatric surgical patients and evaluate their predictors and perioperative outcomes.
Assessed 171 pediatric patients (mean age 9.95 years) scheduled for elective surgical procedures.
Measured anxiety during a preoperative visit and on the day of surgery via self-report, heart rate, and frontal brain EEG activity to classify latent anxiety profiles.
Gathered parent- and child-reported child temperament, coded behavioral distress upon operating room entry, and recorded postoperative pain scores.
Identified two latent anxiety groups: an average anxiety profile comprising 74% of children and a heightened anxiety profile comprising 26%.
Children in the heightened anxiety group presented with significantly higher temperamental shyness and exhibited greater distress behaviors, such as screaming and resisting anesthesia induction, upon entering the operating room.
Patients classified into the heightened anxiety profile showed a trend toward elevated postoperative pain scores relative to the average anxiety group.