Role of Informed Consent in Reducing Pre-Operative Anxiety

Background: Preoperative anxiety is challenging concept in preoperative patients. It could reduce by various methods; one of them is informed consent in which information is provided to patients regarding anesthesia and surgical procedure, it also helps patients to make autonomous decision. Objective: The aim this study was to identify the role of informed consent in preoperative anxiety, in surgical patients of both public and private tertiary care hospital Peshawar. Method: A quasi experimental study design was carried out among preoperative patients of surgical units. The sample of 65 participants was selected through convenient sampling technique. First, the preoperative anxiety was measured with valid adopted questionnaire APAIS. Second, the informed consent was explained to patients and after this again preoperative anxiety was measured to see the effect of informed consent on preoperative anxiety. Results: Among 65 participants 41 (63.1%) were males and 24 (36.9%) were females. 58 (89.2%) were married and 7 (10.8%) were unmarried. The mean age of participants was 49.92 +16.76 years. 24 (36.9%) of the participants were uneducated, 17 (26.2%) primary, 13 (20.0%) secondary, 6 (9.2%) bachelor, and 5 (7.7%) had higher education. The participants were graded for preoperative anxiety, 3 (4.6%) had somewhat, 9 (13.8%) moderate, 27 (41.5%) moderately high, and 26 (40.0%) had extremely high anxiety. while the post-intervention anxiety grades were identified as 20 (30.8%) somewhat, 18 (27.7%) moderate, 17 (26.2%) moderately high, and 10 (15.4%) extremely high. The study shows that well explained informed consent reduced the patient pre-operative anxiety. Conclusion: Preoperative anxiety is common phenomena experienced by patient undergoing through surgical procedures, informed consent is a tool that ensure the respect of patient autonomy and reduce their preoperative anxiety.