The relationship between pain beliefs and anxiety levels in patients undergoing urologic surgery

Abstract

Aim: The study was completed with a descriptive design with the aim of determining the effect of preoperative stress on pain beliefs and used a relationship seeking design with the aim of revealing whether there is a significant correlation between pain beliefs and surgery anxiety levels among patients about to undergo surgical procedures in the urology clinic. Material and method: With descriptive and relationship seeking type, the study was completed with 112 patients admitted to the urology clinic for surgical procedures. For collection of data, a personal information form, pain beliefs scale and preoperative anxiety scale were used. Results: The majority of volunteers participating in the research were male (62.5), married (74.1%), aged 51 years or older (56.3%), primary school graduates (28.6%) and retired (38.4%) with moderate income levels (48.2%). Most patients had spinal anesthesia (48.1%) administered. There was a significant difference found between the surgery anxiety levels and pain beliefs with the anesthesia type administered. There was a negative, low power and statistically very advanced correlation between surgery anxiety and pain beliefs (r: -0.445; p<0.05). Additionally, among the pain belief subdimensions psychological beliefs were mostly correlated with surgery anxiety (r: -0.546; p<0.05). Conclusion: The research found a correlation between anxiety levels and pain beliefs of patients and concluded that researching this in different samples and nurses assessing the pain beliefs of patients will reduce anxiety.