People with Suspected COVID-19 Symptoms Were More Likely Depressed and Had Lower Health-Related Quality of Life: The Potential Benefit of Health Literacy

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic affects people’s health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), especially in those who have suspected COVID-19 symptoms (S-COVID-19-S). We examined the effect of modifications of health literacy (HL) on depression and HRQoL. A cross-sectional study was conducted from 14 February to 2 March 2020. 3947 participants were recruited from outpatient departments of nine hospitals and health centers across Vietnam. The interviews were conducted using printed questionnaires including participants’ characteristics, clinical parameters, health behaviors, HL, depression, and HRQoL. People with S-COVID-19-S had a higher depression likelihood (OR, 2.88; p < 0.001), lower HRQoL-score (B, −7.92; p < 0.001). In comparison to people without S-COVID-19-S and low HL, those with S-COVID-19-S and low HL had 9.70 times higher depression likelihood (p < 0.001), 20.62 lower HRQoL-score (p < 0.001), for the people without S-COVID-19-S, 1 score increment of HL resulted in 5% lower depression likelihood (p < 0.001) and 0.45 higher HRQoL-score (p < 0.001), while for those people with S-COVID-19-S, 1 score increment of HL resulted in a 4% lower depression likelihood (p = 0.004) and 0.43 higher HRQoL-score (p < 0.001). People with S-COVID-19-S had a higher depression likelihood and lower HRQoL than those without. HL shows a protective effect on depression and HRQoL during the epidemic.

Anxiety and Depression in Health Workers and General Population During COVID-19 Epidemic in IRAN: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…While, depression symptoms in infected COVID-19 likelihood was not statically significant comparing to the no infected and infected groups. Nguyen HC et al found that the people with Suspected COVID-19 symptoms had a higher depression likelihood than those without COVID-19 (34).…”

COVID‐19 and implications for eating disorders

“…Besides the consequences that this pandemic is having on public health (Onder, Rezza & Brusaferro, 2020), it stands to have an important impact on mental health (Fiorillo & Gorwood, 2020; Li, Wang, Xue, Zhao, & Zhu, 2020; Torales et al, 2020), including the mental state of patients who are suffering from the infection, family members who have lost loved ones due to this disease, health professionals, the general population and patients who had a mental health problem before the pandemic, who have seen their symptoms increase and/or have had their treatment disrupted (Duan & Zhu, 2020; Kang et al, 2020; Xiang et al, 2020; Wang et al, ). Several studies in Asia are reporting a higher prevalence of post‐traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) after COVID‐19 within the general population (Liu et al, 2020; Wang, Pan et al, 2020) and problems with anxiety and depression (Nguyen et al, 2020; Qiu et al, ; Cao et al, ; Wang, Di, Ye & Wei, 2020).…”

Prevalence of COVID-19: A Look behind the Scenes from the UAE and India

“…Social distancing, isolation, insecurity of food and survival, diminishing of personal interactions, public closure, aggravated and increasing clusters of virus outbreaks leading to the collapse of the health care system, loss of jobs with sudden unemployment, financial crisis resulted in confusion, which may have an impact on health and quality of life. Panic, mental health problems and depression emerged like previously reported in MERS-CoV [37]. Health literacy in the population is a tool to measure the reaction of the public and the related health outcomes in the management of the crisis [37].…”

“…Panic, mental health problems and depression emerged like previously reported in MERS-CoV [37]. Health literacy in the population is a tool to measure the reaction of the public and the related health outcomes in the management of the crisis [37]. Lack of preparedness to the sudden onset of COVID-19 by governments, health care systems and organizations, as well as deficiency in diagnostic mechanisms, treatment options and management protocols further increased public insecurity globally.…”