Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental health condition that is triggered by a terrifying event. We aimed to investigate the occurrence and risk factors of PTSD among discharged COVID-19 patients.
Methods: This study included 144 discharged COVID-19 patients. PTSD was assessed by using validated cut-offs of the impact of event scale-revised (IES-R, score ≥25). All patients completed a detailed questionnaire survey, and clinical parameters were routinely measured in the hospital. Binary logistic regression models were applied to identify factors associated with PTSD.
Results: Of the 144 participants with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, the occurrence of PTSD was 16.0%. In multivariable analyses, age above 40 years (adjusted OR [95% CI], 5.19 [2.17-12.32]), female sex (adjusted OR [95% CI], 7.82 [3.18-18.21]), current smoker (adjusted OR [95% CI], 6.72 [3.23-15.26]), and ≥3 involved pulmonary lobes (adjusted OR [95% CI], 5.76 [1.19-15.71]) were significantly associated with a higher risk of PTSD. Conversely, history of hypertension and serum hemoglobin levels were significantly associated with a lower risk of PTSD with adjusted ORs (95% CI) of 0.37 (0.12-0.87) and 0.91 (0.82-0.96), respectively.
Conclusion: Old age, gender (being female), current smoking, bacterial pneumonia, and ≥3 involved pulmonary lobes were associated with an increased occurrence of PTSD among discharged COVID-19 patients.
Keywords: COVID-19; post-traumatic stress disorder.
© 2022 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.