Evaluation of depression anxiety, stress, and quality of life in people with Covid 19, six months after infection

Abstract

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has severely affected the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of the general population. Patients who have recovered and survived this disease are one of the affected groups. By January 2022, they will be more than 250 million people. However, observational studies reported that about 80% of these patients had some clinical manifestations that persisted several months after discharge or recovery from the infection. Considering the impact of this disease on the mental and physical aspects and finally the effects it has on the quality of life of these people, the purpose of this study is to investigate the state of depression, anxiety, stress and the quality of life of people with covid-19, six months later. It is important to identify the most important factors that disturb the quality of life by examining the results of the disease, and finally, to rehabilitate these people mentally and physically. Method: In this cross-sectional study after the approval of the Ethics Committee of the tabriz University of Medical Sciences, patients who were admitted to Imam Reza Hospital in Tabriz due to COVID-19 during the last six months were included in the study by following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Questionnaire (BREF WHO QOL) and DASS were used to evaluate the quality of life and psychological disorders. Ninty two patients were selected, which were compared with 92 other healthy individuals by pre-designed checklists. Results: In this cross-sectional study, 130 patients were included in the study, which were two groups of case (65 people) and control (65 people). Among them, 67 people (51.5%) were men and 63 people (48.5%) were women. In the statistical analysis, there was a significant relationship between the intensity of depression, anxiety and stress of the two groups (P value < 0.05). In the statistical analysis, there was a significant difference between the physical health, mental health, social communication, environmental health and quality of life of the two groups (P value > 0.001). The strongest relationship was seen between stress and depression (p>0.01 and r=0.74), mental health and physical health (p>0.05, r=0.78) and depression and anxiety (p>0.01 and r=0.74). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the level of education, depression, anxiety, stress, physical health, mental health, social relations, environmental health and quality of life as predictors for the presence of psychiatric symptoms in patients with COVID-19, 6 months after infections were identified. Also, in multivariate analysis, age between 31-60 years and environmental health were independent predictive factors for the development of mental problems after 6 months in patients with covid-19.