The Level of Anxiety and Relating Factors of ICU Patients

중환자실 환자의 입원시 불안정도와 영향요인

This study was performed to figure out the level of anxiety and relating factors of ICU patients as the hospitalization in ICU grows more recently. Data collection was conducted from July 1st to August 31st, 2001. The subjects of this study were consisted of 101 ICU patients who were selected according to the criteria in S hospital, C city. The instruments of the research were consisted of 14 questions of general characteristics, 20 items of STAI, VAS, 24 questions for the anxiety relating factors. And data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, and pearson correlation for group difference and correlation with SPSS Win 10.0 program. The followings were the results of the study: 1. In the anxiety level, mean score on STAI was 53.7(item mean $2.69{\pm}.83$), and mean score on VAS was 5.23. It means that the anxiety level of ICU patients was moderate. 2. Among the relating factors of anxiety, the most highest scores were 'by seeing other patient's emergency situation' and 'by seeing other patient's death' figured 3.85 and 3.79 each. And the lowest marks were 'by the unkind behavior of doctors and nurses'(2.13) and 'nurses' or doctors' indifferent actions'(2.21). And the anxiety according to the environmental factor was the highest (3.17) and the anxiety regarding to the human relationship was the lowest (2.53). 3. In the anxiety level STAI according to the general characteristics, the patients who didn't have to take care of their family showed more anxiety than who had to take care of their family(t=-2.38, p=.02). And the variables that shows a significant difference on VAS was sex and women's anxiety was higher than men's level (t=-2.56, p=.01). 4. When the physical anxiety level was compared, the patients who had to take care of their family showed more anxiety than the people who didn't have to take care of their family(t=-1.95, p=.05). In the level of anxiety relating the human relationship, the patients who had religion showed more anxiety than patients who didn't(t=2.43 p=.02). And the married patients(t=2.43, p=.01) and more educated people(F=3.77, p=.01) showed more anxiety. Even though environmental anxiety was the highest factor, it was not significant with general characteristics. 5. The anxiety and relating factors showed positive significant relationship, and physical anxiety factor showed the strongest relation with STAI(r=.21, p<.01). And VAS level showed stronger relation with every factor of the anxiety than STAI. When the VAS level became higher, the anxiety relating to physical factor(r=.72, p<.01), human relationship(r=.63, P<.01), and environment became higher. According to the above result, the environmental anxiety was the highest level than other factors in ICU patient and thus the environmental nursing intervention becomes very important in ICU. Also nurses in ICU have to support the patients who showed higher level of anxiety in this study and try to develop the nursing intervention to relieve the anxiety of patients. And it is recommended that VAS is convenient and practical instrument for measuring the anxiety level in ICU patients.