Coronavirus-related stress, anxiety, and obsessive thinking in patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation during the COVID19 pandemic. (11th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jug, B; Farkas Lainscak, J; Sedlar, N; Stojnic, D; Lainscak, M
• Is Part Of: European journal of preventive cardiology. Volume 29(2022)Supplement 1
• Publication Date: 2022-05-11
• Subjects: Cardiovascular system -- Diseases -- Prevention -- Periodicals; Cardiac patients -- Rehabilitation -- Periodicals; 616.12
• DOI: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwac056.199
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2047-4873

Abstract

Abstract: Funding Acknowledgements: Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Slovenian Research Agency and Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia Background: The coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic has disrupted the provision of health care, including cardiac rehabilitation. Reduced healthcare provision has been associated with reduced accessibility, wheares patients' perspectives – such as COVID19-related anxiety, stress and obsessive thinking – have been less thouroghly addressed. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of COVID19-related anxiety, stress and obsessive thinking in consecutive patients undergoing outpatient cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial infarction at two centres — a general hospital catering a predominantly rural area and a university hospital in an urban area. From April to October 2021 we captured patients' clinical and socio-economic characteristics, and resposes to the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as well as to three dedicated COVID19-related questionnaires – the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, the Obsession with COVID-19 Scale and a customized COVID-19 Stress Scale. Results: We included 109 patients (mean age 59±10 years, 20% women). Fifteen (13.8%) and eleven (11%) patients reached a HADS treshold for depression and anxiety, respectively. Pateints expressed most concenrs regarding the safety of COVID19 vaccinces (60.6%) on the COVID19 Stress Scale, sleeping disturbances (14.8%) on the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, and fear of interacting with infected people (30.3%) on the Obsession with COVID-19 Scale. No significant differences were observed between respondents from the general and the university hospital. HADS score and social status—but not age, sex and clinical characteristics—were associated with scores on the COVID-19-specific questionnaires; HADS-anxiety domain score remained an independent predictor of COVID19-related stress (p=0.009), obsessive thinking (p<0.001) and anxiety (p=0.009) after multivariate adjustment. Conclusions: Patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation expressed relatively low levels of COVID19-related stress and anxiety. Higher levels of COVID19-related stress, anxiety, and obsessive thinking were observed in patients with higher levels of anxiety, but not in association with demographic or clinical characteristics.