A descriptive comparative study on illness uncertainty and anxiety of patients undergoing major surgery for malignant and non-malignant conditions in selected wards of a tertiary hospital in Tamil Nadu, South India

Background & Aims: Undergoing surgery causes illness uncertainty and anxiety. Pre-operative uncertainty and anxiety affects the postoperative recovery and also increases the risk of post-operative complications, necessitating the need to intervene. Every year around 310 million people undergo surgeries globally for both malignant and non-malignant causes. Do all patients undergoing surgery for both malignant and non-malignant conditions experience illness uncertainty and anxiety similarly? Hence the current study was undertaken to compare illness uncertainty and anxiety of patients undergoing major surgery for malignant and non-malignant conditions.Methods & Materials: A descriptive comparative study was undertaken involving 126 subjects, with malignant (63) and non-malignant conditions (63), in a tertiary hospital. Consecutive sampling was used to recruit subjects Translated version of Mishel Uncertainty Illness Scale (MUIS) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) were self-administered. Results: Findings revealed that subjects with non-malignant conditions experienced higher preoperative illness uncertainty and anxiety (p<0.05). Illness uncertainty and anxiety were positively correlated in both the conditions (r =0.777, 0.853; p<0.01). Age, gender, education, family income, marital status, faith in God, resilience, duration of diagnosis, and history of previous surgery, influenced the illness uncertainty and anxiety patients experienced.Conclusion: Patients adapt to the disease process over time and reconceptualise illness uncertainty in malignant conditions. However sudden occurrence and the fear of unknown could be the reason for increased illness uncertainty and anxiety in non-malignant conditions.