Analysis of mental health status and related factors in patients with acute cerebral infarction

Abstract

BACKGROUND Acute cerebral infarction (ACI) is characterized by a high incidence of morbidity, disability, recurrence, death and heavy economic burden, and has become a disease of concern in global researchers. As ACI has serious effects on patients’ physical status, life and economy, often causing anxiety, depression and other psychological problems, these problems can lead to the aggravation of physical symptoms; thus, it is very important to understand the factors affecting the mental health of these patients. AIM To understand the elements that affect the mental health of patients who have suffered an ACI. METHODS A questionnaire survey was conducted among patients with ACI admitted to three tertiary hospitals (Quanzhou First Hospital, Fuqing City Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, and the 900 Hospital of the Joint Service Support Force of the People’s Liberation Army of China) in Fujian Province from January 2022 to December 2022 using the convenience sampling method. ACI inpatients who met the inclusion criteria were selected. Informed consent was obtained from the patients before the investigation, and a face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted using a unified scale. The questionnaire included a general situation questionnaire, Zung’s self-rating depression scale and Zung’s self-rating anxiety scale. All questionnaires were checked by two researchers and then the data were input and sorted using Excel software. The general situation of patients with ACI was analyzed by descriptive statistics, the influence of variables on mental health by the independent sample t test and variance analysis, and the influencing factors on psychological distress were analyzed by multiple stepwise regression. RESULTS The average age of the 220 patients with ACI was 68.64 ± 10.74 years, including 142 males and 78 females. Most of the patients were between 60 and 74 years old, the majority had high school or technical secondary school education, most lived with their spouse, and most lived in cities. The majority of patients had a personal income of 3001 to 5000 RMB yuan per month. The new rural cooperative medical insurance system had the largest number of participants. Most stroke patients were cared for by their spouses and of these patients, 52.3% had previously smoked. Univariate analysis showed that gender, age, residence, course of disease, number of previous chronic diseases and smoking history were the main factors affecting the anxiety scores of patients with ACI. Age, living conditions, monthly income, course of disease and knowledge of disease were the primary variables influencing the depression score in patients with ACI. The findings of multivariate analysis revealed that the course of disease and gender were the most important factors influencing patients’ anxiety scores, and the course of disease was also the most important factor influencing patients’ depressi...

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“…The SDS also includes 20 items, each scored on a 4-point scale, with the Chinese standard score equal to the total score of the 20 items multiplied by 1.25. Standard scores below 53 always indicate that depressive symptoms are within the normal range [27][28][29]. This scale has also been used in the Chinese pregnant population [27].…”