Materials and Methods
Participants
Participants were recruited by a questionnaire sent out via the
Association of Otolaryngologists in Training mailing list, a national
group.
The questionnaire was created with Google forms. Completed
questionnaires were accepted between September and November 2019.
Information was collected on the participant’s grade and sex but was
otherwise kept anonymous.
Grade of participant was split into consultant, SAS grade (which
includes staff grade, specialty doctor and associate specialist with at
least 4 years experience since medical school), Senior STR (ST7-8),
Junior STR (ST3-6) and core trainee/ core trainee equivalent doctor.
Inclusion Criteria
Actively practicing otolaryngologists were invited to complete the
study.
Assessment of Performance
Anxiety
An adapted version of the Sport Competition and Anxiety Test (SCAT) was
sent out to surgeons (5). This questionnaire has been validated for
athletes and is used in professional sports to assess anxiety levels.
The SCAT questionnaire consists of fifteen questions related to the
performance and anxiety levels in athletes (see Table 1). We
supplemented the word compete with operate so as to make the
questionnaire applicable to surgeons. Answers were returned as either
rarely/ sometimes/ often and were scored as either 1/2/3 depending on
the question. Five questions within the questionnaire are not used to
calculate total anxiety so as to reduce the likelihood of an internal
response-set bias. The SCAT test captures a snapshot of the subjective
reporting of stress.
The ten included questions are summed in order to provide an overall
anxiety score. A score of <17 is classed as low anxiety, 17-24
normal anxiety and >24 high level anxiety.
Statistical analysis
IBM SPSS v 25.0 was used to analyse the statistical significance of the
data. Unpaired student’s T test was used to assess statistical
difference between independent samples. P was assumed to be significant
at <0.05.