The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Fear and the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Patients with Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders and Severe Asthma, and Other High-Risk Groups

  1. Fatih Çölkesen
  2. Oğuzhan Kılınçel
  3. Mehmet Sözen
  4. Eray Yıldız
  5. Şengül Beyaz
  6. Fatma Çölkesen
  7. Gökhan Aytekin
  8. Mehmet Zahid Koçak
  9. Yakup Alsancak
  10. Murat Araz
  11. Şevket Arslan

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the long term is unclear. We evaluated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)–related transmission fear and mental-health disorders in populations at high risk for COVID-19. Materials and Methods: Healthcare workers and patients with primary immunodeficiency disorders (PIDs), severe asthma, malignancy, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were included in the study. The hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and Fear of Illness and Virus Evaluation (FIVE) scales were applied during face-to-face interviews. Results: There was a total of 560 participants, 80 per group; 306 (55%) were female. The FIVE and HADS-A scale scores of health care workers were significantly higher than the other groups (p = 0.001 and 0.006). The second-highest scores were in patients with PID. There was no significant difference between the groups in HADS-D scores (p = 0.07). There was a significant positive correlation between FIVE scale scores and anxiety (r = 0.828; p < 0.001) and depression (r = 0.660; p < 0.001). The FIVE scale had significant discriminatory power for anxiety (AUC = 0.870, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.836–0.904; p < 0.0001) and depression (area under the curve = 0.760, 95% CI = 0.717–0.803; p < 0.0001). Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental-health disorders may develop in patients with comorbidities, especially healthcare workers. They should be referred to mental-health centers. Keywords: Asthma, COVID-19, fear of virus transmission, mental health, primary immunodeficiency

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  1. Version published to 10.21911/aai.651
  2. Version published to 10.2196/preprints.24853
  3. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.26.20140616: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Objective, Study design and Setting: Questionnaires: Statistical analysis: SPSS version 22.0 statistical package software (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, United States) was used for statistical analyses.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    The present study has several limitations. First, only a part of the participants had official diagnoses obtained by examining mental health professionals. Patients who were found meaningful in terms of mental health disorders with scales evaluation were referred to the psychiatry clinic. However, due to the harmful effects of the pandemic process, information feedbacks were not received. Second, since the study was performed during the pandemic process and in a hospital setting by face-to-face interview method, it was not compared with the mental health of the control group without comorbidity from the general population. Finally, it cannot be denied that the face-to-face interview method between the participants and the physicians in hospital settings may impact individuals’ mental health in the pandemic process. Even if the COVID-19 patients were not followed in these clinics and special measures were taken for the care of other patients. In our knowledge, the current study is the first article to compare fear of infection transmission related anxiety and depression in adults with primary immunodeficiency and other high-risk group patients. Also, no published study has been found in the literature on the similar subject of the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that the study will increase knowledge, especially in determining the anxiety and depression levels of patients with primary immunodeficiency, to be treated and to improve their quality of life.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.26.20140616v1 on medRxiv