State and Trait Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography

Background and Objectives: Studies have shown that patients awaiting coronary angiography (CA) are often anxious. High level of anxiety can lead to physical and psychological stress with adverse effects on organs, es‌pecially heart. There is limited information on state and trait anxiety level in these patients in the literature. This study was thus designed to investigate the level of these two types of anxiety in patients undergoing CA.   Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by enrolling 50 patients. A demographic questionnaire and Spielberger State and Trait Anxiety Inventory were used for data collection. T-test was used to compare the anxiety level between gender and age groups.   Findings: The baseline state and trait anxiety mean levels in the CA patients were low (34.36 ± 5.56, 35.9 8 ± 7.49, respectively). The highest level of both state and trait anxieties was observed 30 min before CA (41.44 ± 8.45 and 37.84 ± 6.88, respectively), and it was significantly higher than the corresponding value at baseline state as well as the anxiety after CA (P < 0.05). Female patients were significantly more anxious than male patients both before and after CA (P < 0.05).   Conclusions: The state and trait anxiety of CA patents reaches to a relatively high level immediately before angiography. Given the adverse effects of anxiety on the patients’ health, it is crucial to take measures to get the patients relaxed before CA. Evidence-based designing of nursing interventions, training the nurses on this issue, and providing patients with information on the nature of the CA practice may be effective. Females should be more focused in the relevant interventions.