Psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in an urban setting, Bangladesh.

Aim: The deleterious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health has been reported by earlier studies globally. However, such studies are limited in Bangladesh; therefore, we performed a cross-sectional study to explore the psychological effects of COVID-19 among hospitalized patients.

Methodology: The cross-sectional study was performed from 1 June to 31 October, 2020, and included a total of 503 real time RT-PCR confirmed stable hospitalized adult (aged ≥18 years) COVID-19 patients using the convenience sampling approach. However, patients with prior mental illness, unstable vital signs, severely ill, oxygen saturation <92%, impaired consciousness were excluded from the study. We collected data by using a semi-structured questionnaire including Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI-7), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). Descriptive analysis and multivariable logistic regression were carried out to determine the mental health outcomes.

Results: The study found that about 42.5 %, 30.7%, 46.7%, and 28.5% of patients suffered from moderate to severe depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia. The physical symptoms, fever, fatigue, loss of taste or smell, blurred vision, chest pain, and diarrhoea were significantly associated with augmented mental distress among the hospitalized patients. Furthermore, depression, anxiety, stress and insomnia were strongly linked with patients' education, occupation, infected family members, exposure to COVID-19 patients, smoking, comorbidities, infection among the neighbors or acquaintances, and preexisting stress.

Conclusion: The negative psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic comprising depression, anxiety, insomnia and stress worsened the physical condition of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. These patients' poor mental health status needed to be addressed by devising an integrated approach towards improving patients' wellbeing at the post-COVID period.