The relief of anxiety: comparative study--air plane flying vs anesthesia

Airplane Flying and anesthesia are both not entirely safe. Passengers and patients have the right not to be endangered during flight or anesthesia. Flying and anesthesia has always been associated with anxiety in passengers and patients.

This study was undertaken to compare the anxiety between passengers to fly and patients to receive anesthesia.

One hundred and eighty persons were randomly selected and divided into six equal groups. Pilots and flight crew; anesthetist, resident of anesthesiology and nurse anesthetists; people who had flown but without any history of anesthesia; people without any experience of flight or anesthesia; people with previous experiences of both the flight and anesthesia and finally people with a previous history of anesthesia but without any experience of flight as Groups 1 to 6 respectively. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the level of anxiety during both the flight and anesthesia.

All six groups had significantly more anxiety from anesthesia than flying (p < 0.05) except in group 5 (p = 0.460). Anxiety of flying was significantly less in pilots and flight crews (group 1) when compared with other groups (p < 0.004). The anxiety of anesthesia was significantly less in anesthetist team when compared with those who has not experienced general anesthesia. People who had not experienced anesthesia showed more fear about anesthesia than those who had experienced general anesthesia (p < 0.002).

The results showed that having enough information about flying causes less anxiety just as preoperative visits help the patient to undergo a more comfortable anesthesia.