Objective To evaluate the reliability of Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale (APAIS) score in evaluating the preoperative anxiety of Chinese people.Methods One hundred sixty Chinese patients of both sexes, aged 18-60 yr, of American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status Ⅰ-Ⅲ, scheduled for elective surgery, were enrolled.Preoperative anxiety of the patients was assessed with APAIS score and Spielberger's State-Anxiety Inventory (S-AI) questionnaire during the preoperative interview.Cronbach's alpha of total anxiety and need for information scores was calculated.Four thresholds of total anxiety score in identifying preoperative severe anxiety was set as 10, 11, 12 and 13.S-AI questionnaire was considered as the standard, and the correlation between total anxiety score and S-AI questionaire was tested.Results The Cronbach's alpha of total anxiety and need for information scores was 0.84 and 0.71, respectively.When the threshold of total anxiety score in identifying preoperative severe anxiety was 12, the total anxiety score was highly correlated with S-AI questionnaire, the Kappa value was 0.62, 95％ confidence interval was 0.46-0.78, the sensitivity was 0.71, the specificity was 0.90, and the positive predictive value was 0.78.Conclusion APAIS score can be used to assess the preoperative anxiety of Chinese people.