On the relationship between anxiety and anal fissure

Anal fissure is one of the commonest anorectal diseases which may cause trouble in its acute phase. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the relationship of anxiety (state and trait) with anal fissure. It is a prospective case-control study which was conducted on 83 patients with anal fissure which, diagnosed by a general surgeon, and 83 normal demographically matched controls during 2007-2008 in Mashhad, Iran. Participants filled out Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) as well as researcher-made demographic questionnaires under the supervision of researchers. The collected data were analyzed employing logistic regression, chi-square, and exact fisher tests.Participants in each experimental and control groups consisted of 19 males and 64 females. The two groups were homogeneous on sex, age, educational level, and marital status in males. Logistic regression test showed a significant difference in trait anxiety between two groups in each sex (females P=0.0085, males P=0.0206). Such difference was not observed between the two groups in state anxiety. Exact fisher and chi-square tests revealed a significant difference between females with higher levels of anxiety in two groups (state P=0.015, trait P= 0.010). The findings of this study showed a significant relationship between trait anxiety and anal fissure in both sexes. This relation was not observed for state anxiety. Also, the results revealed a relation between rate of anxiety and anal fissure in females.