The effect of parental presence on anxiety during anesthesia induction in children 2 to 11 years of age undergoing surgery

Introduction: Surgery which is one of the most frightening medical procedures for children can prevent the achieving therapeutic goals, and controlling its consequent fear is very important. This study was conducted with the aim to examine the effect of parental presence on anxiety during anesthesia induction in children 2 to 11 years of age undergoing surgery. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial, 60 children aged 2 to 11 years old undergoing surgery were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. In the experimental group, parents were present during induction of anesthesia. Children’s anxiety was measured by m-YPAS scale (Modified-Yale preoperative anxiety scale) in two phases and finally the data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, t and paired-t tests by using SPSS 18 software. Results: There was no significant difference between mean total score of children’s anxiety in the control group (70.39±20.93) and the experimental group (67.83±16.78) before surgery (p>0.05). Also there was no statistically significant difference between changes in children's anxiety total score in the control group (-3±16.45) and in the experimental group (-8.39±22.95) before and after surgery (p>0.05). Conclusions: It seems that the presence of parents has no useful and significant effect on children’s anxiety undergoing surgery and thus in order to reduce complications due to surgery anxiety, other effective interventions should be investigated.