Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Is the Compassion of Anesthesiologists Associated With Postoperative Pain and Patient Experience? A Prospective Cohort Study
Authors' conclusion
The study results suggest that an anxiety-mediated pathway exists through which compassionate care may help improve the patient's perception of postoperative pain on the day of surgery (before discharge from the hospital). Higher compassion was also associated with better patient experience metrics.
Study context
- Population
- American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I to III patients scheduled for same-day surgery with anesthesiacompleted the study
- Participants
- 147 participants
- Exposure
- Patient-rated anesthesiologist compassion during the preanesthesia interview (continuous exposure)
- Outcome
- Postoperative pain (0 to 10 Likert scale), association with compassion via the anxiety pathway (mediation analysis)
Methodological detailssingle-centre, observational
- Single-centre
- Observational
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Same-day anxiety-mediated effect of compassion on pain
−0.08
95% CI −0.13 to −0.02
Proportion of total effect attributed to anxiety-mediated effect
9%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Secondary outcomes
Postoperative pain scores, median (Q1-Q3)
- POD 0, median (Q1-Q3) 1.5-6
- 4
- 3 days later, median (Q1-Q3) 1-5
- 3
Patient experience metrics (OAS CAHPS, Surgical Care CAHPS)
- Spearman correlation of compassion with patient experience score (ρ; 95% CI −0.64 to −0.39); higher compassion correlated with better experience
- −0.53
- Exploratory correlation analysis
Original publication
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