The perception of territory and personal space invasion among hospitalized patients

1) To identify the patient's perception of invasion of territorial and personal space and 2) to evaluate whether personal characteristics, housing conditions and characteristics of the hospital unit affect this perception.

Analytical, cross-sectional and quantitative study. An adapted version of the "Anxiety Due to Territory and Space Intrusion Questionnaire" was applied with patients hospitalized in the internal medicine and maternity wards and in the ward for patients with private health insurance of a university hospital in the state of São Paulo.

The sample consisted of 300 patients. The mean total score of the questionnaire administered was 143.58 (SD = 18.88). The mean subscale scores for territorial space and personal space invasion were 89.10 (SD = 15.29) and 54.48 (SD = 10.58), respectively. The invasion of territorial space differed significantly between patients with and without children (p = 0.02) and for the number of people living in the residence (p < 0.01).

Attitudes of the nursing staff, such as touching the patient's possessions without permission and exposing the patient, caused discomfort and violated patient privacy. Patients who were lonelier and had more privacy at home perceived greater invasion of their territorial space by the nursing professionals.