TY - EJOU
AU - Werner, Oscar
AU - Louali, Fedoua El
AU - Fouilloux, Virginie
AU - Amedro, Pascal
AU - Ovaert, Caroline
TI - Parental anxiety before invasive cardiac procedure in children with congenital heart disease: Contributing factors and consequences
T2 - Congenital Heart Disease
PY - 2019
VL - 14
IS - 5
SN - 1747-0803
AB - Objective: Medical information provided to parents of a child with a congenital heart
disease can induce major stress. Visual analog scales have been validated to assess
anxiety in the adult population. The aim of this study was to analyze parental anxiety
using a visual analog scale and to explore the influencing factors.
Design: This prospective cross‐sectional study.
Setting: Tertiary care regional referral center for congenital heart disease of
Marseille—La Timone university hospital.
Patients: Parents of children with a congenital heart disease, as defined by the ACC‐
CHD classification, referred for cardiac surgery or interventional cardiac catheterization, were offered to participate.
Intervention and outcome measure: The parental level of anxiety was assessed using
a visual analog scale (0‐10) before intervention and after complete information given
by the cardiologist, the surgeon or the anesthetists.
Results: Seventy‐three children [7 days‐13 years], represented by 49 fathers and 71
mothers, were included in the study. A total of 42 children required cardiac surgery
and 31 children underwent interventional cardiac catheterization. The mean score of
maternal anxiety was significantly higher than the paternal anxiety (8.2 vs 6.3, P < .01).
A high level of maternal anxiety (visual analog scale > 8) was associated with paternal
anxiety (P = .02), the child's comorbidity (P = .03), the distance between home and
referral center (P = .04), and the level of risk adjustment for congenital heart surgery
(P = .01). In multivariate analysis, maternal anxiety was associated with paternal anxiety
(OR = 4.9; 95% confidence interval [1.1‐19.2]), and the level of risk adjustment for congenital heart surgery (OR = 11.4; 95% confidence interval [1.2‐116.2]). No significant
association was found between parental anxiety and prenatal diagnosis.
Conclusion: This study highlighted several factors associated with the parental anxiety. Identifying the parents at risk of high stress can be useful to set up psychological
support during hospitalization.
KW - anxiety
KW - congenital heart disease
KW - parents
KW - visual analog scale
DO - 10.1111/chd.12777