Most parents suffer from significant Anxiety Before elective Surgery of their children: An Observational Study
A recent prospective study Published in the Journal of Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons in July 2026 reveals that 56% of parents experience significant preoperative anxiety before pediatric surgery, with mothers facing a heavier emotional burden than fathers (67.3% vs. 56.9%).
While pediatric surgery historically triggers high distress, limited data exists on how parental demographics and socioeconomic status (SES) shape this anxiety in India. To address this gap, Dr. Alok Kumar Sahoo and his team at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, investigated perioperative anxiety prevalence and its correlation with parental education and SES.
Therefore, the prospective study evaluated perioperative anxiety in 414 Indian parents of children undergoing elective pediatric surgery using standardized HAM-A and APAIS scales. Excluding parents with psychiatric histories, researchers analyzed anxiety prevalence alongside key sociodemographic and clinical predictors.
Key Clinical Findings of the Study Includes:
• Widespread Preoperative Distress: The study reported that clinically significant preoperative anxiety affected 56% of all parents, with 67.3% of mothers and 56.9% of fathers meeting the anxiety threshold at admission.
• Maternal Vulnerability and Information Needs: It demonstrated that mothers experienced higher acute preoperative anxiety than fathers (35.3% vs. 16.2%) and expressed a significantly greater desire for information.
• Socioeconomic and Educational Influences: It identified that lower socioeconomic status and lower educational attainment consistently correlated with elevated parental anxiety.
• Protective Effects of Clinical Familiarity: The study established that a child's prior surgical exposure significantly reduced parental anxiety, while increasing paternal age also served as a protective factor.
• Postoperative Resolution and Duration Stress: It observed that anxiety rates dropped postoperatively to 19.8% for mothers and 17.3% for fathers, though prolonged surgical duration was associated with higher postoperative distress.
The results suggest that preoperative anxiety is exceptionally high among Indian parents, with mothers facing 1.6 times higher odds of experiencing severe anxiety compared to fathers. This high prevalence, particularly among those from lower socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, highlights the urgent need for structured counseling and integrated informational resources within pediatric perioperative care.
Thus, the study concludes clinicians can utilize these findings to implement tailored communication strategies, such as health-literacy-based visual aids, verbal reinforcements, video counseling, and surgical familiarization programs, to mitigate parental apprehension before elective pediatric procedures.
While the single-center, elective-only study relied on self-reported questionnaires and did not assess long-term outcomes, conducting future longitudinal, multicenter investigations could further enhance the clinical understanding of parental distress across diverse pediatric surgical cohorts.
Reference
Sahoo AK, Pati AB, Sahoo SK, Padhy SK, Behera BK. Prevalence and predictors of parental anxiety in pediatric surgery: An observational study. Journal of Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons 2026;0:0-0.
