Prevalence and Associated Factors of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Symptoms in Clinically Stable Covid-19 Patients Admitted in a Tertiary Care Hospital in India

ABSTRACT

Background: Earlier studies have been dedicated towards the mental health disturbances associated with public population during COVID-19 pandemic but there is a limited knowledge on the prevalence of psychological manifestations and its associated demographic factors in COVID-19 positive patients among the Indian nationals. Hence, the objective of the present investigation is to examine the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms and associated socio-demographic confounding factors among the clinically stable COVID-19 patients Material(s) and Method(s) An observational cross sectional study was performed on 351 COVID-19 positive patients who were hospitalized for their treatment in COVID-19 isolated wards and fulfilled the inclusion criteria were enrolled for the study after getting the institutional review board approval. Patients were provided with semi-structured proforma with socio-demographic and self-administered DASS-21 questionnaire. Later filled in forms were collected and patients clinical data were entered and subjected for further statistical analyses with SPSS version 25. Result(s) The median age of the total study included population was quantified to be 26.0 +/- 0.5 years. The complete prevalence ranging from mild to extremely severe category of DASS-21 for depression, anxiety and stress status among the study participants was estimated to be 26.5% (n=93), 35.6% (n=125), and 17.7% (n=62) separately with a statistical significance. The analysis showed revealed that gender and fear factor of the patients were associated with their depression status;education status and fear factor were related to anxiety level;and gender, education status, employment status, socio-economic status, past history of psychiatric illness, and fear factor were associated with their stress level. Conclusion(s) Patients with male in gender, education below graduation level, unemployed state, socio-economic state of both middle and lower middle class, past history of psychiatric illness, and fear of virus would have an impact on the severity of psychiatric morbidity adversely. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.