The Effect of Rose Aromatherapy on Anxiety Before Abdominal Operation

Aims Preoperative anxiety could increase postoperative pain, the need for analgesics, and the patient's hospital stay. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of aromatherapy with rose on preoperative anxiety before abdominal operation. Methods & Materials This clinical trial was performed on 90 patients undergoing abdominal operation at 15Khordad Hospital, in 2017. The study patients were assigned to the intervention and control groups by permuted block randomization method (n=45/group). The study instrument was the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The STAI was completed before and after conducting the intervention in both study groups. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS using descriptive statistics, Student’s t-test, Paired Samples t-test, and Chi-squared test at a significance level of P<0.05. Findings The mean±SD age of the investigated patients in the intervention and control groups were 37.13±31.35 and 44.15±51.65 years, respectively. Most frequent operation type was inguinal hernia in both study groups. Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of anxiety (P>0.05); however, after the intervention, there was a significant difference between the study groups in terms of apparent and total anxiety (P<0.05). Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the study groups, in terms of latent anxiety (P>0.05).  Conclusion Aromatherapy with rose is effective in decreasing the apparent anxiety of patients before surgery. Thus, it is recommended to be used as a complementary, inexpensive, and non-invasive treatment at healthcare centers.