Relationship between sedative prescribed to children before surgery and parental anxiety at Shahid Chamran Hospital, Shirazin 2015

The researcher's observations at work indicated that many parents will experienceanxious behaviors (cry and so on) while their children are prescribed sedative. The present study was carried out in order to determine the relationship between prescription of sedative to children before surgery and the level of anxiety among parents in Shahid Chamran Hospital, Shiraz. The present study was a comparative descriptive-analytical investigation. It consisted of all parents who had referred to Shahid Chamran Hospital, Shiraz for surgery of their children. Sampling was carried out by a convenience method. The study included a total of 65 individuals in each group (experimental and control groups). The analytical results were examined using Independent t-test, paired t-test, and ANOVA test. SPSS 21.0 software was employed to analyze the collected data. According to p values resulted from Chi-square, Fisher's exact test, and Independent t-test, the two groups were not significantly different in terms of demographic variables (e.g. age, number of family members, gender, employment, and educational level) (p>0.05). The results of the present study indicated that there is no significant relationship between the mean total score of anxiety before intervention and demographic variables. Prescription of sedative before surgery led to a decrease in the parents’ anxiety. According to the results of the present study, the main hypothesis of the study, i.e. there is a difference between the level of anxiety among parents whose children have received or not received sedative, was confirmed. This study showed that after the children were prescribed sedative, the parents’ anxiety dropped.