Prevalence and factors associated with anxiety during echocardiography procedure

Abstract

Purpose: Echocardiography is the main modality for definitive diagnosis and evaluation of children with congenital heart disease. Anxiety is the most common feeling experienced by children when they visit healthcare facilities. The first aim of this study was to give an overview of the prevalence of anxiety symptoms, and the second aim was to investigate the factors associated with anxiety during the echocardiography procedure. Patients and methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in the pediatric cardiology outpatient clinic at Prof. Dr. I G.N.G. Ngoerah General Hospital, Denpasar-Bali period February 2022 to August 2022. Children aged 18 months-6 years who underwent echocardiography evaluation were included. The visual analog scale of anxiety (VAS-A) was used to measure the severity of anxiety. The analysis is using chi-square test and logistic regression. The significance of risk factors is reported as a prevalence ratio with 95% confidence intervals and p<0.05. Results: In a total of 156 subjects, the prevalence of anxiety during the procedure was 64,1% with a similar gender proportion. Multivariate analysis found that age ≤3 years old and did not attend school were associated with anxiety (PR 60.53; 95% CI 13.07-280; p<0.001 and PR 5.59; 95% CI 1.31-23.77; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Anxiety during the echocardiography procedure is common. Age ≤3 years old and did not attend school were associated with anxiety during echocardiography.