Follow-up survey on psychological health status in persons bit by dogs / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate psychological health status and its change in short term among persons bit by dogs.Methods Psychological health status was evaluated with patient health questionnaire (PHQ-15) Chinese version for the 613 wounded persons bit by dogs,including 368 males and 245 females with average age of 36 years plus or minus 14 years (standard deviation),meanwhile their wounds were handled routinely at clinics,as well as health education and cognitive psychological intervention were provided for them.Results All of the 613 persons with dog bites had mild or moderate somatic syndrome in their initial visits and 478 of them (78.0%) still presented mild somatic syndrome and only 23 (3.7%)with moderate symptoms four week after dog bites by PHQ-15 scores.One hundred and fifty-two of 613 (24.8%) followed-up at their initial visits had depressive symptoms,which could remain in 61 of them (10.0%) four weeks after bites.Two hundred and eighty-four of them (46.3%) had anxiety symptoms at initial visits,and 258 (42.1%) still had mild and nine (1.5%) had moderate symptoms four weeks after bites.Conclusions Psychological symptoms were popular in wounded persons by dog bites,which can persist for a certain time.PHQ-15 can be used for evaluating their psychological status.