Anxiety in patients with malignant neoplasms in the mediate postoperative period: a correlational study.

Aim: To investigate anxiety in cancer patients hospitalized in the mediate postoperative period, through the Trait-State Anxiety Inventory, and the correlation between anxiety and malignant neoplasms of the head and neck, stomach, and colorectal. Method: This is a descriptive, quantitative and correlational study, performed in a hospital located in the state of Ceará. We used an analysis of variance, ANOVA-F test, to assess the existence of differences in the scores of the scales. Results: The participants were 80 patients with a mean age of 50.9 years; they were mostly men (53.8%) with head and neck cancer (40.0%). The level of anxiety state and trait was moderate, and anxiety-state was slightly higher than trait anxiety in the three groups. Participants with head and neck malignant neoplasm had higher average scores of the state anxiety and trait anxiety. Conclusion: There was no statistically significant difference between anxiety and the three oncological surgical groups evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]