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

Objective: 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. Materials and methods: 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. Results: 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). Conclusions: 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. Keywords: Emergency department, Hospital anxiety subscale, Anxiety disorder, Anxiety, HADS