IMPACT OF PREOPERATIVE COUNSELING ON ANXIETY LEVELS IN CHILDREN AND PARENTS.

Abstract

Background: Preoperative anxiety in children and their parents is common and associated with poorer perioperative cooperation, increased analgesic requirements, and longer recovery. Preoperative counseling (age-appropriate information, coping strategies, and orientation) is a potentially low-cost intervention to reduce anxiety.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of structured preoperative counseling on anxiety levels in children and their parents, and to assess perceptions of its usefulness among health-care trainees and staff (MBBS doctors/interns, nursing students, BDS students, and technical & nursing staff).

Design: Multicenter mixed-methods study with (A) a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of counseling vs standard care in 200 child–parent pairs and (B) a cross-sectional survey of 350 health-care trainees/staff across four tertiary hospitals of India.

Results (summary): In the RCT component, children who received structured counseling showed significantly lower Modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (mYPAS) scores at induction compared with controls (mean difference −15.2 points, 95% CI −18.6 to −11.8, p<0.001). Parent state anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI-S) was also lower in the intervention group (mean difference −6.7, 95% CI −8.9 to −4.5, p<0.001). In the survey, >80% of MBBS and nursing students and ~70% of technical staff rated preoperative counseling as "very

useful"; common barriers cited were time constraints and lack of training.

Conclusions: Structured preoperative counseling significantly reduces anxiety in both children and parents. Widespread adoption—supported by brief training for clinical staff and students—could improve perioperative experience