Preoperative Anxiety Management Practices in Pediatric Anesthesia: Comparative Analysis of an Online Survey Presented to Experts and Social Media Users

Abstract

Abstract Background Managing preoperative anxiety in pediatric anesthesia is challenging, as it impacts patient cooperation and postoperative outcomes. Both pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions are used to reduce children’s anxiety levels. However, the optimal approach remains debated, with evidence-based guidelines still lacking. Health care professionals using social media as a source of medical expertise may offer insights into their management approaches. Objective A public survey targeting health care professionals was disseminated via social media platforms to evaluate current practices in anxiety management in children. The same questions were posed during an annual meeting of pediatric anesthesiologists with their responses serving as reference. The primary objective was to compare pediatric anesthesia expertise between the groups, while secondary objectives focused on identifying similarities and differences in preoperative anxiety management strategies hypothesizing expertise differences between the groups. Methods Two surveys were conducted. The first survey targeted 100 attendees of the German Scientific Working Group on Pediatric Anesthesia in June 2023 forming the “Expert Group” (EG). The second open survey was disseminated on social media using a snowball sampling approach, targeting followers of a pediatric anesthesia platform to form the “Social Media Group” (SG). The answers to the 24 questions were compared and statistically analyzed. Questions were grouped into 5 categories (pediatric anesthesia expertise, representativity, structural conditions, practices of pharmacological management, and practices in nonpharmacological management). Results A total of 194 responses were analyzed (82 in EG and 112 in SG). The EG cohort exhibited significantly greater professional experience in pediatric anesthesia than the SG cohort (median 19 vs 10 y, P<.001), higher specialist status (97.6% vs 64.6%, P<.001), and a greater pediatric anesthesia volume (43.9% vs 12% with more than 500 cases per year, P<.001). Regarding the representativity, 2 items out of 4 were statistically significant (level of care of institution, annual caseload of institution). Regarding the overall anxiety management practices used, there is a heterogeneous response pattern within both groups. Conclusions Despite heterogeneous approaches, health care professionals using social media demonstrated less expertise in pediatric anesthesia but showed minimal differences in the daily management of preoperative anxiety compared with pediatric anesthesia experts. Our study highlights the potential for meaningful use of social media but future studies should explore the impact of social media health care professionals’ knowledge in other specific topics. Additionally, regarding preoperative anxiety, further recommendations are needed that could help to standardize and improve anxiety levels in children.