Frequency of Anxiety in Patients Having Cesarean Section Under Regional Anesthesia
Anxiety with Cesarean Section Under Regional Anesthesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54393/pbmj.v9i10.1423Keywords:
Anxiety, Cesarean Section, Regional Anesthesia, Preoperative Anxiety, Obstetric Anesthesia, Family SupportAbstract
Preoperative anxiety is common among women undergoing cesarean section and may affect perioperative outcomes and maternal satisfaction. It is important to identify associated factors in order to enhance patient-centred care. Objective: To determine the frequency of anxiety and its associated factors among women undergoing cesarean section under regional anesthesia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional analytical study that involved 103 women who underwent elective and emergency cesarean section under spinal or epidural anesthesia between November 2024 and April 2025. A non-probability consecutive sampling procedure was used in recruiting participants. The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) was used to measure anxiety. The associations were examined with Pearson's chi-square test or Fisher's exact test, and the effect size was measured with Cramer's V. The level of significance (p-value) was set at ≤ 0.05. Results: The median age was 27.1 years (IQR: 8.4). Anxiety was present in 68.0% of participants (95% CI: 58.4%–76.2%), with moderate anxiety being the most frequent category among affected women. Fear of surgery (68.9%) and anesthesia (57.3%) were common. Anxiety was significantly higher among women without family support (80.0% vs. 60.3%; p=0.037; Cramer's V = 0.206). Counseling and other evaluated factors showed no significant associations. Conclusion: Preoperative anxiety was common, with lack of family support showing a significant unadjusted association.
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Copyright © 2026. The Authors. Published by CrossLinks International Publishers LLC, USA. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), Copyright of each article remains with its authors, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For comments editor@pakistanbmj.com
