Self-Affirmation for Managing Anxiety and Perceived Discomfort in Open-Heart Surgery

This study adopted a randomized controlled pretest-posttest follow-up research design. The study was conducted at a public training and research hospital (Istanbul, Turkey) specialized in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. The sample consisted of 61 patients randomized into two groups: intervention (n=34) and control (n=27). The participants of the intervention group listened to a self-affirmation audio recording for three days after surgery. Anxiety levels and perceived discomfort regarding pain, dyspnoea, palpitations, fatigue and nausea were measured daily. The study's main question is How do self-affirmation affect postoperative anxiety and perceived discomfort (regarding pain, dyspnoea, palpitations, fatigue and nausea) in patients who undergo open-heart surgery? In accordance with this question, the hypotheses was that repetitive positive self-affirmations decrease both anxiety and perceived discomfort in patients who underwent open-heart surgery.