Psychological stress and depression symptoms in cardiac outpatients at the time of COVID-19 pandemic. (The ABC study on heart disease)

Introduction: Covid-19 exerts a significant impact on public health since it has reached a pandemic level in March 2020. Purpose: We aimed to investigate the impact of the pandemic on the psychological status of cardiac patients. Methods: Patients presented to the outpatient cardiac clinic of Conegliano general hospital were divided into 2 groups according to their presentation in relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The presence or absence of stress and/or depression symptoms was established based on the patient's self- assessment psycho-emotion questionnaire. Results: A total of 191 patients were included in this preliminary analysis, with a mean age of 67±16.5 years and a 3:2 male to female ratio. Of them, 128 patients (67%) were presented before the pandemic, and 63 patients (33%) were presented during it. Both groups shared most of the demographic and clinical characteristics. Stress symptoms were reported in (67% Vs 52%;p=0.048), and depression symptoms were reported in (29% Vs 18% p=0.09) in patients who were presented during and before the pandemic, respectively. In the unadjusted logistic regression analysis, psychological stress (Odds Ratio [OR]=1.9;95% confidence interval [CI]=1.0-3.5;p=0.049), and depression symptoms (OR=1.8;95% CI=0.9-3.7;p=0.09) tend to be higher in patients who were presented during the pandemic. Same results were obtained using the fully adjusted model, (OR=1.9;95% CI=0.9-3.9;p=0.06) and (OR=2.0;95% CI=0.9-4.2;p=0.06), for psychological stress and depression symptoms, respectively. Conclusion: Psychological stress and depression symptoms tend to be more frequent in the patients seen during the covid-19 pandemic, independently from baseline clinical characterestics.