Madhu Srinivasaiah, Vinuprasad Venugopalan2, Ramadas Konnanath Thekkethil
BACKGROUND Preoperative anxiety, an unpleasant state of uneasiness in preoperative period is known to increase the anaesthetic requirement intraoperatively, analgesic requirement peri-operatively and duration of stay in the hospital. Various studies have found incidence of preoperative anxiety as 60-80%. Studies regarding incidence of preoperative anxiety in India are very few and so are the scales which measure pre-operative anxiety in various Indian languages. We could not find any validated scale in Malayalam language for measurement of preoperative anxiety. Here we attempt to translate Amsterdam preoperative anxiety and Information scale (APAIS) to Malayalam and evaluate its psychometric properties. MATERIALS AND METHODS A semantically equivalent version of preoperative Anxiety and Information scale (APAIS) was created using translation, back translation method. Its psychometric properties were assessed in patients by exploratory factor analysis. RESULTS Of total 101 patients, 61 (60.39%) were males and rest 40 (39.6%) were females. Factor analysis of the six items of APAIS revealed a cumulative variance of 62.36%. But, Need for information identified in the original scale could not be replicated. The mean anxiety score was 5.88 ± 3.20, however female had significant higher score of 7.38 ± 4.15 as compared to males with mean score of 4.95 ± 1.94 (P=0.0001).There was no significant difference between males (3.02 ± 1.61) and females (3.92 ± 1.99) in need for information. CONCLUSION Amsterdam preoperative anxiety and Information scale, a reliable and valid tool, can be used to measure preoperative anxiety in Malayalam speaking South Indian population. However, further studies are required to replicate the original APAIS.
