Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Mixed-methods Analysis of Preoperative Distress and Postoperative Outcomes in a Prospective, Observational Cohort of Older Adults
Authors' conclusion
Psychological distress is common among geriatric surgery patients, and higher preoperative stressor count was associated with worse postoperative outcomes.
Study context
- Population
- Patients aged 65 yr and older undergoing nonintracranial, noncardiac surgery129 engaged in distress assessment
- Participants
- 132 patients
Methodological detailssingle-centre, mixed-methods
- Single-centre
- Mixed-methods
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
Preoperative distress (modified NCCN Distress Thermometer) and associations with postoperative outcomes
- High distress intensity (≥4 of 10)
- 42.2%
- Stressor count, median [Q1, Q3]
- 2 [1, 5]
- Stressor count vs postoperative hospital LOS, Spearman's r s [95% CI]
- 0.24 [0.06 to 0.40]; P = 0.017
- Stressor count vs postoperative pain, r s [95% CI]
- 0.25 [0.07 to 0.41]; P = 0.016
- Stressor count vs risk for postoperative delirium, OR [95% CI]
- 1.19 [1.06 to 1.33]; P = 0.009
Further findings
Distress themes (qualitative)
- Stressors most associated with high distress: changes in eating, communication with the healthcare team, sleep, worry or anxiety; potentially addressable
Original publication
Mixed-methods Analysis of Preoperative Distress and Postoperative Outcomes in a Prospective, Observational Cohort of Older Adults. Anesthesiology. Published 3 October 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →