A study on reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Face Anxiety Scale on mechanically-ventilated...

Mechanical ventilation treatment causes patient anxiety, such that for those people dependent on mechanical ventilation, it was suggested to self-evaluate anxiety levels using a scale. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Face Anxiety Scale in order to evaluate general patient anxiety levels for those receiving mechanical ventilation in a cardiovascular surgery (CVS) intensive care unit (ICU). A survey was conducted between April and December 2015 with 99 patients in receipt of mechanical ventilation at the CVS-ICU of a military training hospital in Turkey. Patients' average age was 59.31±16.47 years (range 18-83 years), with 73.7% for males and 73.7% for those undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The average scores from the Face Anxiety Scale were 2.8±1.3. A statistically significant (positive) correlation was found between scores from the test and retest (r=0.87, p<0.001), which indicated that the scale was reliable. The relationship between the Face Anxiety Scale and Profile of the Mood States (POMS) of participants scored 0.89, corroborating the validity of the former (p<0.001). This study found that it was valuable for evaluating patient anxiety in those receiving mechanical ventilation.