Mental health in COVID-19 survivors from a general hospital: association with sociodemographic, clinical, and inflammatory variables

Abstract

Background: The current COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic constitutes a significant problem for the world's public health and generates mental health problems.Objective: To describe the characteristics of mental health in survivors of COVID-19 and the main sociodemographic, clinical, and immune factors related.Method: A Cross-sectional and correlational study was conducted on 318 patients (196 women, mean age 54.4 ± 15.1 years) surviving COVID-19 from one hospital in Peru in which sociodemographic, clinical, and immune characteristics were explored. Through telephone interviews, an evaluation of the presence of depressive, anxious, somatic, and distress symptoms was carried out using standardized scales. Adjusted prevalence ratios (PRa) were estimated.Results: A significant proportion of the patients have depressive (30.3%), anxious (29.9%), somatic (33.7%), and distress (28.7%) symptoms. In the regression analysis, the variables associated with a higher frequency of clinically relevant mental symptoms were female sex (depression: aPR = 2.29; anxiety: PRa = 2.71; somatic symptoms: PRa = 2.04; distress: PRa = 2.11), proceeding outside the capital (depression: PRa = 1.61; anxiety: PRa = 1.53), the self-perception of a greater severity of the infection (depression: PRa = 5.53; anxiety: PRa = 2.29; distress: PRa = 14.78), the presence of persistent COVID-19 symptoms (depression: PRa = 8.55; anxiety: PRa = 11.38; somatic symptoms: PRa = 5.46; distress: PRa = 20.55), a history of psychiatric treatment (depression: PRa = 2.29; somatic symptoms: PRa = 2.90 ; distress: PRa = 3.80), the history of a family member infected by COVID-19 (anxiety: PRa = 4.71; somatic symptoms: PRa = 1.99), and a neutrophil-lymphocyte index greater than 6.5 (depression: PRa = 1.67; anxiety: PRa = 1.82).Conclusion: COVID-19 survivors show a high prevalence of negative mental symptoms. Some useful variables have been found when identifying vulnerable patients requiring psychiatric care.