Changes in Preoperative Anxiety Following Video-Based Re-Education Delivered via WhatsApp Among Patients Undergoing Appendectomy: A Pre-Experimental Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33755/jkk.v12i4.1064Keywords:
Artificial intelligence, appendectomy, digital health education, patient education, preoperative anxiety, WhatsAppAbstract
Background: Preoperative anxiety may reflect uncertainties about anesthesia, surgery, and recovery. Video-based reinforcement of standard counseling can be distributed through mobile messaging, but bundled AI-supported education needs cautious evaluation when only a single-group design is available.
Objective: To document within-person changes in reported preoperative anxiety scores following an AI-supported educational video delivered by WhatsApp to patients awaiting appendectomy.
Methods: A single-group pretest–posttest study purposively enrolled 33 patients aged 17–50 years at Mary Cileungsi Hospital. One day before appendectomy, participants received an AI-supported re-education video through WhatsApp following standard physician counseling. The Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) was administered before and after re-education, and paired outcomes were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The analyzed APAIS scoring variant requires confirmation.
Results: Recorded mean anxiety scores fell from 12.52 (SD 2.587) to 6.94 (SD 1.886), a descriptive reduction of 5.58 points. All 33 participants had lower posttest scores (Wilcoxon Z = −5.033; p < 0.001). Reported anxiety categories lack independently documented thresholds and require validation.
Conclusion: Anxiety scores were lower after a WhatsApp-delivered preoperative educational video among 33 selected appendectomy patients. The uncontrolled design and incomplete instrument and intervention-fidelity documentation prevent attributing the change to the video, WhatsApp, or AI use specifically. Controlled, reproducible studies are needed.
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