Introduction: Preoperative worries can have adverse impacts in children. It has associations with a number of behavioral disturbances after the surgery. Considering the rate of 65% of children candidates for surgery, suffering from preoperative worries, recognition of worries relationship with behavioral disturbances has great impotence. It could help nurses to diagnose such complications better in order to have a proper plan for reducing preoperative worries and disturbances after surgery. The study aimed at determining the association of preoperative worries and sleep disturbances in children undergo surgery in hospitals affiliated to Kerman Medical University.

Method: A correlational descriptive – analytic study was conducted cross-sectionally. A total of 309 children, aged 8-14 years old were who had undergone general anesthesia and surgery, participated in the study. Data were collected through standard preoperative worries questionnaire in four dimensions of disease, surgery, hospitalization and injection procedures, and sleep disturbances questionnaire (researcher- made) in 4 domains of general sleep disturbances, disturbances prior to sleep, disturbances during sleep and disturbances after sleep. All statistics were computed using the SPSS software (version 13). ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficients were used as statistical tests for analysis.

Results: Among 309 participants, 118 were female and 191 males. Their mean age was 10/64 years old. 14 years old participants had the minimum scores of worries and 12 years old ones, the maximum. The results showed a significant correlation between preoperative worried and sleep disturbances after surgery (r=0/31). The children who underwent respiratory surgery had the highest levels of worries and the children with mass resection surgery showed the lowest levels of worries. Also, the children who had come from other provinces expressed more worries. A negative correlation was found between worries scores and age (p>0.05) but no significant correlation between worries scores hospitalized care units and residential place (p>0.05). Worried related factors had significantly positive correlation with age, gender and kind of surgery (p>0.05).

Conclusion: The study revealed that children experience fear and worries in surgery which is directly associated with their sleep disturbances. The study calls for more investigation on different aspects of issue. Nurses should provide plans for decreasing levels of children and their parents’ worries in collaboration with other health team members and make it as an acting plan for taking care of such children.