Brazilian Nursing Communication Symposium
SIBRACEN

Abstract

Juárez Giovanna Maribel Rosado, Gois Cristiane Franca Lisboa, Sawada Namie Okino. Anxiety and fear: a critical evaluation of articles in the health area. In: Proceedings of the 8. Brazilian Nursing Communication Symposium [Proceedings online]; 2002  May 02-03; São Paulo, SP, Brazil. 2002 [cited 2024 Apr 18]. Available from: URL: http://www.proceedings.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=MSC0000000052002000200008&lng=en&nrm=van .

Anxiety and fear are emotional states experienced by some individuals who feel threatened in the continuity of their life routine. This study consisted in a descriptive and exploratory bibliographic research aimed at assessing scientific evidence concerning these states by correlating them in the sphere of nursing. During the bibliographic research, a reduced number of articles, theses and dissertations about the issue was verified in the sphere of nursing, which limited our study. In the total number of investigated articles, we neither found any evidence of a systematic review (meta-analysis) about the proposed theme nor randomized clinical studies (level I). As to other levels of evidence, seven randomized studies (level II) were found which had been developed by the medical area. Concerning levels III, IV and V, seven studies were found which had been conducted by nurses and dealt with concerns about anxiety in the pre-operative and post-operative periods, seeking to establish various related factors, among which 28.5% focused on communication with the patient with a view to relieving anxiety and reducing fear.

Keywords : anxiety and fear; evidence-based nursing.