Anxiety in Home-Quarantined Patients with COVID-19

Abstract

One of the challenges of the current pandemic in Romania has been the monitoring of COVID-19 positive patients isolated at home by their family doctors. There was no legal framework or experience in remote medical consultations and there were no clear and comprehensive guidelines for therapeutic management at the beginning of this study. As the pandemic evolved, one of the problems identified from practical experience was that anxiety in this category of patients is an underestimated factor. The present study aimed to provide some clarifying data on the level, determinants, effects and methods of addressing anxiety in COVID-19 patients isolated at home. This approach started on a number of N = 107 patients to whom demographic data were collected and an anxiety questionnaire was applied by telephone. In the next stage, in order to obtain valid results in a timely manner, an online questionnaire was completed by 71 family physicians from Galati County, Romania. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was performed using Excel and SPSS software. The results showed that the level and importance of anxiety in these patients are underestimated and one of the key factors to avoid negative endings (delayed hospitalization or unjustified hospitalization) is the self-determination of peripheral oxygen saturation.

The impact of self-isolation on psychological wellbeing and how to reduce it: a systematic review

“…19,20,25,27,30,31,34,37,39,43,46,48 Only three quantitative studies reported adaptive wellbeing outcomes. 31,46,48 Reasons for self-isolation were COVID-19 infection, 21,24,26,28,29,31,33,35,37,40,41,43,45,47–49 suspected infection, 42 close contact with an infected person, 30,36,39,52,54 or a combination of these. 19,20,22,23,25,27,32,34,38,44,50,51,53 One study did not report a reason.…”

“…Twenty-two studies did not report lockdown context, all but one 19 related to aims 2 and 3. 21,22,24,26,28,30–35,37,38,40,43,44,47,48,52–54…”

“…Factors associated with wellbeing were reported in 20 quantitative studies, several of which investigated associations with more than one factor (Table 4). The most reported factors were related to self-isolation, 19,21,32,34,35,37,40,44,45,49,51 demographics, 21,30,32,42,44,47 mental and physical health, 21,32,37,47,54 and COVID-19 symptoms. 21,37,43 Several factors or outcomes were reported by only one study, such as the time of year or loneliness, which are not reported here but can be found in the full extraction tables (Appendix 6).…”

“…In risk of bias assessments, no findings were at low risk, one had some concerns, 35 and most findings were at high, 21,30,32,41,42,44,45,49,51,53 or very high risk of bias. 19,22,29,34,37,40,43,47,54 ; (Appendix 7). Limiting findings to some concerns of bias or high risk of bias did not alter the interpretation of the findings for aim 2.…”

“…30,32 There was inconsistent evidence for an association between age or gender with any wellbeing symptoms. 21,30,32,42,44,47…”