Epidemiology and Society Health Review| ESHR Vol. 3, No. 2, 2021, pp. 23-30 ISSN 2656-6052 (online) | 2656-1107 (print) 10.26555/eshr.v3i2.4301 23 Review Article Pre-operative Education to Reduce Anxiety: Literature Review Rissa Widyasworo Hartanti 1, * and Lina Handayani 1 1 Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia * Correspondence: widyaswororissa@gmail.com Phone: +628562554570 Received 26 June 2021; Accepted 9 August 2021; Published 10 August 2021 ABSTRACT Background: Surgical procedure is one of the stressors that can end up with psychological disorders such as anxiety. Anxiety can lead to increased blood pressure and the risk of bleeding. Receiving detailed information on the surgical procedure is a patient's right. The information provided is expected to reduce patient anxiety and foster good relations between health workers and patients. Considering the importance of this step, we study the effect of pre-operative information before surgical procedures based on the published literature. This study aimed to summarize the previous research that elaborates on the relationship between education pre-operative and anxiety. Method: A literature review was used in this study. Google Scholar, PubMed, and ProQuest databases were chosen as data sources. We sough article published during 2016-2021. In total, 450 articles were screened using inclusion and exclusion criteria for analysis. Results: Eight articles reported that there was an effect of education on patient anxiety. Conclusion: Providing education is an effective approach to reduce patient anxiety. Keywords: Education; Patient; Anxiety; Information INTRODUCTION Surgery is an invasive treatment action that displays body parts, makes an incision, then repairs and closes the wound with suturing (1). Surgery is a high-risk action that requires an operating room to minimize infection during surgery (2). The stages of surgery start from pre- operative, intraoperative, and post-operative. Pre-operative preparation is one of the phases that determines the success of the surgery. Pre-operative preparation starts from the patient entering the treatment room until the patient arrives in the operating room (3). The readiness of the patient includes physical and mental readiness. Physical readiness examines physical health, nutritional, fluid, and electrolyte balance, gastric and colonic hygiene, personal hygiene, and bladder emptying. Mental/psychic pre-operation readiness is psychological readiness in dealing with surgery. Patients who do not have mental readiness will experience anxiety before surgery (4). Anxiety also has medical risks such as increased