Background: Undergoing a colonoscopy can cause anxiety in patients and this is something which has not been closely studied.Objective: To determine the frequency and intensity of anxiety prior to a colonoscopy and the factors which are related to the procedure.Methods: This is a prospective study of patients undergoing outpatient colonoscopy in our hospital. Anxiety was assessed using a visual analogue scale of 0 to 100. The severity of anxiety was rated as mild (1-29), moderate (30-79) or severe (80-100).Results: Three hundred and twenty-seven patients completed the study, of whom 154 (47.1%) were men with a median age of 54 years (p25-75: 45-65). Three hundred and nine (94.5%) patients were found to suffer a certain degree of anxiety. The median value on the visual analogue scale was 31 (p25-75: 10-53). Anxiety levels were mild in 136 patients (44%), moderate in 141 (45.6%) and severe in 32 (10.4%). Greater anxiety was associated with female patients (mean 40.38 vs 31.99, p = 0.01) and a poorly tolerated previous colonoscopy (mean 50.67 vs 28.44, p = 0.01) and correlated inversely with age (r = -0.170, p = 0.02).Conclusions: Colonoscopy causes some degree of anxiety in most patients. Being female, younger and having experienced poor tolerance to a previous scan are associated with greater degrees of anxiety. These findings should be taken into account in the implementation of measures to improve the quality and tolerance of colonoscopy.

tolerance of patients undergoing ambulatory colonoscopy under conscious sedation is good in most cases and complications are infrequent and minor. A worse tolerance to the test is associated with women patients, individuals with anxiety prior to colonoscopy, indication, difficult and longer exploration and lower doses of sedatives.

Diarrhea caused by nematode multiple infection is uncommon in Spain; therefore, we are not very familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of these patients.