A Study on the Effect of Supportive Touch on the Anxiety of the Patients in the Operation Room

Lee, Phil Ho; Choi, Kyung Sook

Abstract

The purpose of study was to examine the effect of supportive touch on the surgical patients with anxiety in the operation room. The method of this study has been carried out under the similar experiment of Nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design by conveniently selecting 25 experimental group and 25 control group totalling 50 patients in immediatery prior to surgery in the operation room. The data were collected from June. 22, 1998 through Aug. 28, 1998 at C-University hospital in Seoul. The subjects were 50 adult patients who were operated under general anesthesia and had undergone laparotomy. They did not have any complication, were alert enough to be interviewed and agreed willingly to participate in this study. The tool for measurement was the testing protocol for Trait-State anxiety developed by spilberger and the visual analogue scale developed by cline etc. and blood pressure, pulse rate and respiration rate and blood sugar level. SPSS program was used for the analysis. The hemogenety of the control and experimertal group was examined by x2-test and t-test. The results of this study are as follows: 1. There was the significant difference of the state anxiety between the experimental group and the control group (P=0.012) Just before surgery. 2. There was a partially significant difference in the vital signs between the experimental group and control group just before surgery. (systolic blood pressure: P=0.000, diastolic blood pressure: P=0.972, pulse rate: P=0.572, resp rate: P=0.186). 3. There was the significant difference of the blood sugar level between the experimental group and the control group(P=0.002) just before surgery. 4. There was a partially significant difference in the vital signs and blood sugar level of the experimental group and the control group when pre-therapeutic and post-therapeutic readings were compared. (systolic blood pressure: P=0.000, diastolic blood pressure: P=0.035, pulse rate: P=0.796, resp rate: P=0.242, blood sugar level: P=0.002).