Prevalence of Depression, Anxiety and Stress among Patients Discharged from Critical Care Units
Article Category: Research Article
Published Online: May 12, 2021
Page range: 113 - 122
Received: May 30, 2020
Accepted: Apr 08, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jccm-2021-0012
Keywords
© 2021 Mohammad Saeidi, Alireza Safaei, Zohreh Sadat, Parisa Abbasi, Masoumeh Sadat Mousavi Sarcheshmeh, Fariba Dehghani, Mehran Tahrekhani, Mohammad Abdi, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Introduction
The widespread use of advanced technology and invasive intervention creates many psychological problems for hospitalized patients; it is especially common in critical care units.
Methods
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 310 patients hospitalized in critical care units, using a non-probability sampling method. Data were collected using depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21) one month after discharge from the hospital. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results
181 males and 129 females with a mean age (SD) of 55.11(1.62) years were enrolled in the study. The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress were 46.5, 53.6 and 57.8% respectively, and the depression, anxiety and stress mean (SD) scores were 16.15(1.40), 18.57(1.46), 19.69(1.48), respectively. A statistically significant association was reported between depression, anxiety and stress with an increase in age, the number of children, occupation, education, length of hospital stay, use of mechanical ventilation, type of the critical care unit, and drug abuse.
Conclusion
The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress in patients discharged from critical care units was high. Therefore, crucial decisions should be made to reduce depression, anxiety and stress in patients discharged from critical care units by educational strategies, identifying vulnerable patients and their preparation before invasive diagnostic-treatment procedures.