Publication:
Behavioral and sociodemographic predictors of anxiety and depression in patients under epidemiological surveillance for COVID-19 in Ecuador

Date

2020

Authors

Paz, Clara
Mascialino, Guido
Adana Díaz, Lila
Simbaña-Rivera, Katherine
Gómez-Barreno, Lenin
Troya, Maritza
Páez, María Ignacia
Cárdenas, Javier
Gerstner, Rebekka M.

Director

Publisher

Public Library of Science
Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia
Artículo / Artikulua
Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa

Project identifier

Abstract

Ecuador has been one of the most affected countries by the Corona Virus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic, by April 2020 this country presented the highest rates of mortality in Latin America. The purpose of the present study was to identify behaviors during confinement and sociodemographic variables associated with the mental health status of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients who were part of the epidemiological surveillance program in Ecuador that included mandatory confinement and self-isolation. A cross-sectional study was performed from March 22th to April 18th, 2020 using an online survey. The survey collected socio-demographic information and severity of depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and anxiety symptoms through the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7. A total of 759 patients completed the questionnaire, 20.3% presented moderate to severe symptoms of depression and 22.5% moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety. Being a woman and from the Coastal region were risk factors. Exercising, maintaining daily routines, and keeping informed about the COVID-19 but limiting to an hour was associated with better mental health. Regression analysis indicated that the mentioned behaviors explained approximately 17% of the variance for depression sum scores and 11.8% of the variance for anxiety sum scores while controlling for gender and region. Understanding the association between sociodemographic variables and psychological states in patients with COVID-19 is relevant to tackle future public mental health problems and to implement health policies that are intended to palliate further psychiatric complications. Promotion of modifiable behaviors such as exercising, maintaining daily routines, and keeping informed about the COVID-19 but limiting to less than an hour is recommended.

Description

Keywords

COVID-19, Ecuador, Patients, Anxiety, Depression

Department

Ciencias de la Salud / Osasun Zientziak

Faculty/School

Degree

Doctorate program

item.page.cita

Paz, C., Mascialino, G., Adana-Díaz, L., Rodríguez-Lorenzana, A., Simbaña-Rivera, K., Gómez-Barreno, L., Troya, M., Paez, M. I., Cárdenas, J., Gerstner, R. M., Ortiz-Prado, E. (2020) Behavioral and sociodemographic predictors of anxiety and depression in patients under epidemiological surveillance for COVID-19 in Ecuador. PloS one, 15(9), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240008.

item.page.rights

© 2020 Paz et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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