Rapid anxiety assessment in medical patients: Evidence for the validity ofverbal anxiety ratings

Rapid assessment of patient anxiety is necessary to insure quality care. A number of self-report measures provide valid and reliable measures of anxie ty These measures can be time-consuming to complete, however and may be bur densome to medical patients who are in pain or acute anxiety states. Many m edical procedures are performed in conditions in which written measures are cumbersome (e.g, patient in supine position), and scoring and interpretati on of written measures in a busy clinical setting may be difficult for medi cal personnel. The present study provides validity data for a verbally admi nistered (0-10) anxiety rating. One hundred and ninety-eight adult interven tional radiology patients completed standard measures assessing state anxie ty, trait Negative and Positive Affect and the dimensions of the five-facto r model of personality. Verbal anxiety rating was highly correlated with Sp ielberger's State Anxiety Inventory, showed moderate correlations to the re lated constructs of neuroticism and trait Negative Affect, and was largely unrelated to theoretically distinct constructs. Verbal anxiety ratings made prior to the invasive procedure also predicted pain and anxiety during the procedure. The verbal anxiety rating also demonstrated sensitivity to chan ges in anxiety that occurred as a result of changes in situation. Findings support the convergent and discriminant validity of verbal anxiety ratings.