Anxiety levels of ICU patients at tertiary referral hospital using Visual Analog Scale for Anxiety (VAS-A)

Abstract

Patients undergoing treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are at risk of experiencing anxiety. If left untreated, anxiety can worsen the patient's condition to the point of prolonging the length of stay in the ICU. To determine the level of anxiety of patients treated in ICU RSUD Dr. Soetomo Surabaya. This research is a descriptive study with a cross-sectional design. The research was conducted at the Rumah Sakit Umum Daerah (RSUD) Dr. Soetomo Surabaya with a data collection period of September - October 2022. The total sample obtained was 45 research subjects. The anxiety level of the study subjects was assessed using the Visual Analog Scale for Anxiety (VAS-A). Author can select Normal style from styles of this template. The results of this study were that all research subjects or as many as 100% of research subjects experienced anxiety. Overall, the research subjects experienced severe anxiety as much as 48.9%, moderate anxiety as much as 37.8%, while mild anxiety as much as 13.3%. The level of anxiety is higher in non-geriatric age (55.9%), female sex (50%), surgical patients (55.6%), research subjects with ventilator (57.1%), and research subjects with the use of invasive devices (53.6%). Most of the research subjects experienced severe anxiety. Analytical tests between anxiety trigger factors and anxiety levels were not carried out.