The Relationship between Preoperative Anxiety and Religious Beliefs

While waiting for surgery, patients often exhibit fear and anxiety, which may lead to increased pain and vital signs' instability. Religious involvement is an appropriate alternative to relieve anxiety. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between preoperative anxiety and religious beliefs for patients admitted to the selected hospitals in Qom. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 322 patients waiting for surgery in three governmental hospitals in the city of Qom via available sampling method. Data were collected using two standard questionnaires of Hamilton Anxiety Scale
(14 questions) and researcher-made religious beliefs (14 items) with reliability and validity, which were completed by trained interviewers. Finally, data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent T-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficients at the significant level of <0.05. The mean±SD of anxiety was 10.13±6.42. Among them, 7(1.9%), 314 (86%) and 44 12.1% patients had no anxiety, low anxiety and moderate anxiety, respectively. The mean±SD of religious belief was 34.30±4.18 so that 9 (2.5%), 99 (27.1%) and 257 (70.4%) had low, moderate and good religious belief, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient showed there was a significant and inverse correlation between preoperative anxiety and religious beliefs (P=0.002, P=-0.158). The results indicated that there was a relationship between preoperative anxiety and religious beliefs, and anxiety was decreased with the increase of religious beliefs score.