Factors Associated With Increased Anxiety in the MRI Waiting Room

•A study of waiting room time and anxiety for patients awaiting MRI.•Scores from the self-reported State and Trait Anxiety Scales were reported.•Results support the correlation between high levels of anxiety and longer wait times.•Females who arrived anxious experienced worsened anxiety with longer wait time.•Patients who did not report high trait anxiety were not affected by longer wait times.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of waiting room time on patient stress. The wait for patients undergoing diagnostic imaging tests, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), can vary significantly. However, the impact of MRI waiting room time on patient stress has not been determined. The study had a prospective nonrandomized design. One hundred ninety-two of 200 enrolled subjects completed self-report State-Trait Anxiety Inventory assessments to measure levels of anxiety on arrival to the waiting room and entering the MRI suite. Scores from the Trait and State anxiety tests were compared to understand how waiting times impacted patient anxiety. Data were analyzed using a multivariate model, which demonstrated that sex (female), baseline anxiety, and the length of waiting time were predictive of increased anxiety. These results support the correlation between high levels of anxiety with longer waiting times, particularly in females who arrive to the waiting room feeling anxious. Longer waiting room times had no effect on patients who were not anxious when they arrived.