The Agreement between State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory (STAI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) on Measuring Anxiety Level Among Adult Patients Before Venepuncture Procedure

Abstract

Introduction: Venepuncture procedure is painful and anxiety associated with venepuncture is common. There are many tools for assessing anxiety levels in an outpatient setting. Hence, this study is to compare the degree of agreement between State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory (STAI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) for measuring anxiety levels among adult patients before venepuncture procedure. Methods: A cross-sectional pilot study was conducted among patients while waiting for a venepuncture procedure in the Phlebotomy Unit, UiTMMC in April 2020. The Malay-validated version of the State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory (STAI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used to assess the anxiety level. Differences between sets of data were plotted as described by Bland-Altman to determine the agreement between these two assessment tools. Results: A total of 330 patients participated in the study with a mean age of 46.34 ± 14.34 years old and gender was equally distributed. The scores of state-anxiety (STAI-S), trait-anxiety (STAI-T) and BAI score were 30.04 ± 20.74; 29.51 ± 19.11; and 40.98 ± 20.45, respectively. The score of anxiety using BAI was higher compared to STAI-S (p<0.001) and STAI-T (p<0.001). The mean difference between the STAI-S and BAI was -10.94 (95%CI: -53.01, 26.87) and between the STAI-T and BAI was -11.47 (95%CI: -42.26, 19.32). However, very few patients’ scores outside the 95% LOA for both differences. Conclusion: The STAI and BAI are concordances in measuring anxiety levels among these patients. However, the anxiety score using BAI was higher than STAI. Thus, both assessment tools can be used in clinical practice in measuring anxiety in the out-patients setting.