Journal of Perioperative Nursing · Published 2026-07-01 · DOI 10.26550/2209-1092.1398
Background: The development of novel assessment methods is imperative to identify the sources of patients' anxiety and facilitate their relaxation. To the best of our knowledge, no studies in Turkey have reported on changes in operative anxiety among adults during surgical procedures. This study used the state-trait operation anxiety (STOA) scale, a questionnaire to measure operation-related anxiety. It has two parts: STOA-S for state anxiety and STOA-T for trait anxiety. The objective of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the STOA scale in Turkish. Methods: This methodological study included 202 patients with a mean age of 55.58 years (±14.47). The common indicators for surgery were umbilical hernia, cholelithiasis and appendicitis in the hospital. Concurrent validity was evaluated for internal consistency, content validity, construct validity and the reliability of the instrument. Results: The content validity index (CVI) indicated high content consistency for STOA-T items (CVI = 0.92) and STOA-S items (CVI = 0.88) as rated by experts. Factor analysis demonstrated high internal consistency reliability across all models: STOA-T one-factor (Cronbach's alpha = 0.879; item-total correlations 0.60 – 0.71), STOA-T two-factor cognitive anxiety (Cronbach's alpha = 0.806; item–total correlations 0.60–0.79) and emotional anxiety (Cronbach's alpha = 0.821; item-total correlations 0.54 – 0.78) and STOA-S (Cronbach's alpha = 0.879; item-total correlations 0.51– 0.79). Conclusion: The Turkish version of the STOA scale demonstrated high validity and reliability. Healthcare professionals in Turkey should use this scale to evaluate perioperative anxiety in adults.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Alkan, T. (2026). Reliability and validity of the state–trait operation anxiety scale. Journal of Perioperative Nursing. https://doi.org/10.26550/2209-1092.1398