Assessment Of Preoperative Anxiety Using Visual Facial Anxiety Scale: An Alternative To The Verbal Rating Scale?

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Published Jul 21, 2015

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Main Article Content

Roya Yumul
Department of Anesthesiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
Julianne Ahdout
Department of Anesthesiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
Ariana Goodman
Biomedical Engineering, University of Rochester
OFELIA Loani Elvir Lazo
Department of Anesthesiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
Antonio Hernandez Conte
Department of Anesthesiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.
Galen Cook-Wiens
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Xuezhao Cao
Department of Anesthesiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang.
Paul F. White
Department of Anesthesiology, Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. White Mountain Institute, The Sea Ranch, California 95497, USA and Visiting Scientist at Instituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, University of Bologna, IT.

Abstract

Background: Evaluating preoperative anxiety level can be a difficult task for physicians. The Visual Facial Anxiety Scale (VFAS) was designed as an alternative to the Verbal Rating Scale (VRS) for assessing the level of preoperative [state] anxiety. We hypothesized that the VFAS would provide a stronger correlation between the patient and anesthesiologist categorical anxiety assessments than the VRS.  

 

Methods: After obtaining IRB approval, 200 elective surgery patients were evaluated in the preoperative holding area. Patients were asked to evaluate their current anxiety level using the VFAS and the VRS, as well as to categorize their anxiety level as mild, moderate, or severe. The anxiety level was also assessed using the same categorical rating scale by the attending anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologists were also asked if they routinely evaluate the patient’s anxiety level during the preoperative visit.

 

 Results: A significant correlation was found between the VRS and VFAS for both patients (r=0.79, p<0.0001) and anesthesiologists (r=0.92, p<0.0001), but utilization of the VFAS resulted in 58% concordance of anxiety level between the patient and anesthesiologist (vs. only 35% with the VRS). Interestingly, 70% of anesthesiologists did not routinely evaluate the patients’ preoperative anxiety level.  

 

Conclusion: The VFAS is a simple tool which could be used for assessing preoperative anxiety. Anesthesiologists do not routinely evaluate patients’ anxiety levels preoperatively.

Article Details

How to Cite
YUMUL, Roya et al. Assessment Of Preoperative Anxiety Using Visual Facial Anxiety Scale: An Alternative To The Verbal Rating Scale?. Medical Research Archives, [S.l.], v. 2, n. 2, july 2015. ISSN 2375-1924. Available at: <https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/281>. Date accessed: 22 dec. 2024.
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Keywords
preoperative (state) anxiety, visual facial anxiety scale (VFAS), verbal rating scale (VRS), categorical anxiety rating scale
Issue
Vol 2 No 2 (2015): October 8-15
Section
Research Articles

The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.

 

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