S38 

The Agreement between State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory (STAI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory 

(BAI) on Measuring Anxiety Level Among Adult Patients Before Venepuncture Procedure 

 
Izzaty Dalawi1, Mohamad Rodi Isa1,2, Mohd Faizul Harris Mohd Hatta1, Mohamad Fairuz Rahmat1  

 
Objectives: Venepuncture procedure is painful, and anxiety associated with venepuncture is common. 

There are many tools for assessing the anxiety level in an outpatient setting. Hence, this study assessed 

the agreement between State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory (STAI) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) on 

measuring anxiety levels among adult patients before the venepuncture procedure.  

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients while waiting for venepuncture 

procedure in the Phlebotomy Unit, UiTMMC, from April until May 2020. The Malay validated version 

of the STAI and BAI were used to assess the anxiety level. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS Version 

26.0. The differences between data sets were plotted as described by Bland-Altman to determine the 

agreement between these two assessment tools. 

Results: A total of 330 patients participated in the study with a mean age of 46.34 ± 14.34 years old, 

and gender were equally distributed. The scores of state-anxiety (STAI-S), trait-anxiety (STAI-T) and 

BAI were 30.04 ± 20.74, 29.51 ± 19.11, and 40.98 ± 20.45, respectively. The score of anxiety using 

BAI was higher compared to STAI-S (p<0.001) and STAI-T (p<0.001). There was a positive correlation 

between STAI-S and BAI (r=0.600, p<0.001) and between STAI-T and BAI (r=0.740, p<0.001). The 

mean difference between the STAI-S and BAI was -10.94 (95%CI: -53.01, 26.87) and between the 

STAI-T and BAI was -11.47 (95%CI: -42.26, 19.32). However, very few patients’ scores outside the 

95% limit of agreement (LOA) for both differences. 

Conclusion: The STAI and BAI have an agreement on measuring anxiety levels among patients waiting 

for venepuncture procedures based on a good degree of concordance. However, the anxiety score using 

BAI was significantly higher compared to STAI. Thus, healthcare providers can use both assessment 

tools in clinical practice, especially in measuring anxiety in the outpatient setting. 

 

Keywords: state-anxiety, trait-anxiety, Beck Anxiety Inventory, agreement, venepuncture 

 

___________________________________________________________________________ 

1Department of Public Health Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) 

Sungai Buloh Campus, 47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia. 

2Ministry of Health, 62675 Putrajaya, Wilayah Persekutuan Putrajaya, Malaysia. 

 

Correspondence to:  

Mohamad Rodi Isa, Public Health Medicine Specialist, Department of Public Health Medicine, Faculty 

of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Jalan Hospital, 47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia, 

Email: rodi@uitm.edu.my_ 

_________________________________________________________________________________ 

 

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31344/ijhhs.v6i0.428

mailto:rodi@uitm.edu.my_