Introduction. Hospitalization and surgical treatment is often associated with the feeling of fear experienced by the patient who is in a new situation, which also includes concern for their own health and life causes. Aim. The aim of the study was to analyze the severity of anxiety and its determinants in patients hospitalized in the surgical ward. Material and methods: The research was carried out at the Independent Public Health Care Center of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Szczecin. The study included 170 patients hospitalized at the Department of General Surgery. Material and methods. The method of a diagnostic survey using an author’s questionnaire and a State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) tool for measuring the intensity of anxiety as a condition and as a trait. Results. The surveyed group included women, 48.2% and men, 52.8%. The average age was 51.5 years. The age and education had an effect on anxiety as a trait. Studies revealed that a group of women waiting for hemicolectomy had a higher level of anxiety as a condition and as a trait. Inhabitants of smaller cities were characterized by a higher level of anxiety as a characteristic of people living in large cities over 100,000 residents. People with no support had a higher level of anxiety, both as a state and as traits. It was shown that the higher score on the scale of one anxiety was associated with a higher score on the second anxiety scale. Conclusions. 1) In the examined group of surgical patients, it was shown that the determinants increasing anxiety as a state were: gender, lack of support from the family, reason of hospitalization. 2) The increase in anxiety as a trait is intensified by age, sex, education, place of residence, reason of hospitalization.

Key words: hospitalization, perioperative anxiety, intensity of anxiety.