Anxiety in relatives of patients with covid-19 hospitalized at respiratory diseases national institute

Abstract

Introduction: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had impact on people’s mental health. The family or caregiver of hospitalized patients are considered a vulnerable population, who do not usually receive the necessary mental health care, and due to the current confinement, they have to be apart from their relative interned for COVID-19, making their situation harder. Objective: To know the anxiety symptoms of the relatives of patients in hospital for such disease. Material and methods: Exploratory, descriptive and ambispective study on relatives of hospitalized patients for COVID-19 at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City, interviewed through the questionnaire GAD-7, from May 15 to September 30, 2020. A descriptive analysis was carried out and sociodemographic variables were collected for their correlation. Results: A sample of 234 family members was analyzed, with an average age of 42 years, the mean of anxiety symptoms was at seven, corresponding to a diagnosis of mild anxiety. Of them, 73.5% reported mild symptomatology and 26.5% moderate-severe. Women have more moderate-severe symptomatology compared to men (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Almost a third of the family members reported mild or severe anxiety symptoms. These results are very important because anxiety could influence the decisions they make about the treatment of their hospitalized patients for COVID-19. Developing strategies to give them psychological support could be the most important goal throughout the pandemic.