Influence of lifestyle altering surgeries on well being

Pages: 558-564
D. Ravi Shanker (Department of Psychology, Adikavi Nannaya University, Rajahmundry. Andhra Pradesh)
D. Renuka Rani (Seven Hills Hospital, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh)

The health behaviours of people influence to a large extent how they adjust to illness and their recovery from surgery. The present study attempts to examine the influence of lifestyle altering surgeries on well being among patients who undergo these surgeries. A review of related studies had shown that there is little or no research in the Indian context. This study is exploratory in nature and adopted a pre-post design, where patients were evaluated prior to and after surgery. The data collected from 153 patients (mean age 44.56; SD=12.58) who underwent elective major surgery which would cause lifetime post operative alterations. The surgeries included in the study were cardiac, cardiothoracic, gynaecology, orthopaedics, neurology, urology and gastroenterology. The psychological measure considered for this study includes Bradley’s General Wellbeing Questionnaire (1994). The findings of the present study indicate that female patients compared to the male patients tend to report higher level of anxiety prior to the surgery. After surgery, depression and anxiety significantly increased along with positive well being. Energy has decreased significantly. Orthopedic patients have significant increase in anxiety after the surgery. Understanding psychological wellbeing would help health practitioners seeking ways to help the community improve its health and well being especially in Indian context.