Emergency department patients' clinical and demographic characteristics regarding Hospital Anxiety subscale

To evaluate clinical and demographic characteristics of the emergency department (ED) patients using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) which includes anxiety (HAD-A) subscale.

In this cross-sectional study, all consecutive adult patients admitted to the community hospital-based ED in the study period were enrolled prospectively. HAD-A items were responded by the patients themselves. Demographic characteristics, history, and clinical findings were analyzed.

Four hundred and ninety-eight consecutive ED patients with eligible conditions were enrolled. Mean age was 44.1 ± 16.5 (range 18-90) and 53.0% (n = 264) were female. The presence of pathological examination finding was significantly associated with a tendency to have a HAD-A score higher than 10 (p = .044). Presence of systemic disease was significantly associated with higher anxiety scores (t-test, p = .029). Patients presented with acute exacerbation of a chronic illness and those with psychological condition had significantly higher HAD-A scores (p = .014 and p = .008, respectively).

High acuity, presence of pathological finding, higher income, presence of a systemic disease, acute exacerbation of a chronic illness were significantly associated with higher anxiety scores.