Psychological impact of COVID-19 on Medical Oncology, Haemato-Oncology and Radiation Oncology patients at a public hospital in Spain

Abstract

Objective: Determine the psychological impact of COVID-19 in cancer patients and assess how clinical and socio-demographic variables contribute to it. Methods: this study uses an observational, analytical and cross-sectional methodology (T1) to explore the degree of psychological distress in 88 cancer patients from the Medical Oncology (n=31), Radiation Oncology (n=31) and Haemato-Oncology (n=26) units of the Hospital Universitario 12 Octubre in Madrid, Spain. Mental health was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and The Postraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5). A self-elaborated questionnaire was also used to evaluate the effect of sociodemographic and clinical variables in mental health. Results: No significant differences were found in the symptoms presented by patients from the three different departments. 22.7%, 13.6% and 15.9% of the cancer patients surveyed obtained pathological scores for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress, respectively. In addition, a direct correlation was found between fear of contracting COVID-19 and anxious, depressive and post-traumatic symptomatology (p<0.001). Also between fear of spreading the virus and depression (p=0,002) and fear of spreading it and anxiety and post-traumatic stress (p<0.001). Conclusions: Despite the high prevalence of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic symptoms that the patients showed, percentages are similar to those obtained in pre-pandemic studies. Respondents who were more afraid of contracting or spreading COVID-19 scored higher in the clinical symptoms, which highlights the importance of evaluating such fears and to use them as a screening tool.