Methods. The interventional study was performed at the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno klinikos, the Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery and the Department of Cardiology. The data were collected between June 2019 and February 2020. The intervention group (n = 109) received nurse-led preoperative education 1–3 days before the surgery. The patients in the control group (n = 109) received ordinary education provided by the staff of the hospital: surgeons, anaesthesiologists and nurses. The patients’ anxiety level was assessed with Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ) developed by Eifert (2000).

Results. Postoperative CAQ-Fear, CAQ-Avoidance, CAQ-Attention and CAQ-Total Score decreased significantly in the patients of the intervention group who participated in preoperative nurse-led education (P < 0.05). There was no significant decrease of scores of any anxiety subscale in the patients of the control group (P > 0.05); moreover, the scores of anxiety subscale CAQAttention significantly increased after surgery among the control group patients (P = 0.007). It was found that gender, smoking habit and the average duration of smoking experience did not associate with the level of postoperative anxiety in the patients after coronary artery bypass grafting; age and education had a very weak correlation with the anxiety level of the study sample (r < 0.2; P < 0.05).

Conclusions. Nurse-led preoperative education reduced anxiety in the patients after coronary artery bypass grafting significantly. Gender, smoking habits and smoking duration of the participants were not associated with the level of postoperative anxiety but age and education had a very weak significant (positive and negative) correlation with the patients’ anxiety domains. Before surgery, the patients felt moderate anxiety and, in reference to our study results, preoperative education has to be necessarily included in clinical practice.