Utility of a modified distress thermometer in screening COVID-19 patients for psychological distress: A prospective Egyptian study

Abstract

Background: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has adopted the distress thermometer (DT) as one of the best-known distress-screening instruments. We have adopted a modified version of the NCCN distress thermometer.We questioned if this modified DT (m-DT) could be utilized for measuring the prevalence of psychological distress among COVID-19 patients.Methods: The prospective study included 2 phases; modification of the original DT and its associated problem list (PL), and evaluation of this m-DT in measuring the prevalence of psychological distress among COVID-19 patients. Egyptian adult subjects with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 at 2 University Hospitals were enrolled. Binary logistic regression tests were carried out to explore the association between the m-DT cut-off scores of 4 and the clinical variables.Results: One hundred sixty-nine (60.4%) patients experienced significant distress (m-DT cut off score ≥4). Logistic regression showed that occupation, presence of special habits, length of quarantine time, worry, cough, shortness of breath, and fever, were independent factors associated with significant distress in COVID-19 patients.Conclusion: With the modified distress thermometer (m-DT), 60% of Egyptian COVID-19 patients experienced significant distress. This distress was significantly related to age, marital status, occupation, presence or absence of special habits, and length of the quarantine time. With m-DT, the current study had identified worry, being a health-care worker, shortness of breath, fever, length of quarantine time, presence of special habits, and cough as independent factors associated with significant distress in COVID-19 patients. Further studies are warranted.

Is the Modified Distress Thermometer Useful for Screening Pregnant Women With COVID-19 for Psychological Distress?

“…As shown in our recent publication [ 14 ], we have utilized the m-DT to screen the enrolled pregnant women for psychological distress, with the use of a cutoff score of ≥4 for significant distress [ 12 , 14 ]. The patients were screened at their first outpatient/emergency department visit or inpatient admission.…”

“…The patients were screened at their first outpatient/emergency department visit or inpatient admission. As the m-DT includes an 11-point visual analog scale ranging from 0 (no distress) to 10 (extreme distress), the study subjects were asked to rate their distress in the past three days on this scale (Figure 1) [14]. The image is obtained with permission from Mohamed et al [14].…”

“…The importance of screening cancer patients for psychological distress using valuable tools, like distress thermometer (DT) is well established [ 12 , 13 ]. This had led us to the idea of adopting a modified version of this DT (m-DT) to screen adults with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 for psychological distress [ 14 ]. With the m-DT, we have seen that 60% of adult Egyptian COVID-19 patients experienced significant distress [ 14 ].…”

“…This had led us to the idea of adopting a modified version of this DT (m-DT) to screen adults with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 for psychological distress [ 14 ]. With the m-DT, we have seen that 60% of adult Egyptian COVID-19 patients experienced significant distress [ 14 ]. Therefore, in the current study, we aimed to evaluate the utility of this modified DT (m-DT) as a screening tool for evaluating psychological distress among pregnant women with COVID-19.…”

Integrating healthcare for follow‐up of adult COVID‐19 patients in an outpatient clinic: A matter of cooperation

“…Therefore, the HADS seems a useful tool in post‐COVID‐19 patients. However, recent literature has shown that other, maybe less time‐consuming tools can be used as well 14 …”