Introduction
Emotional distress, symptoms of depression and anxiety, is common among patients after a cardiovascular disease (CVD) and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity. However, there is still lack of data in Korea.
Objective
The aim was to describe emotional distress in patients with CVD and to determine factors associated with it.
Methods
It was a retrospective study and 49 patients who were admitted to the hospital due to CVD from March to June 2019 were enrolled. Emotional distress of depression and anxiety were evaluated with Beck anxiety inventory (BDI) and Beck anxiety inventory (BAI) respectively, which were performed in a week since disease onset. Baseline characteristics including sex, age, type of CVD (myocardial infarction or angina), previous history and family history of CVD, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, body mass index (BMI), smoking, alcohol consumption, and Korean activity scale index (KASI) were collected. The relationship between the presence of emotional distress and the baseline characteristics were analyzed with Chi-square test or Mann-Whitney U test. The relationship between the degree of emotional distress assessed with raw score of BDI and BAI and the baseline characteristics were analyzed with Pearson’s correlation analysis.
Results
The baseline characteristics of the patients are shown in Table 1. Depression was found in 18 (37.5%) patients, and anxiety was found in 24 (50.0%) patients. Presence of depression after the CVD showed correlation with presence of family history of CVD (p=0.022) and low KASI raw score (p=0.043). Presence of anxiety after the CVD showed correlation with high KASI class (p=0.044) (Table 2). When relationship between the degree of emotional distress assessed with raw scores of BDI and BAI and the baseline characteristics were analyzed, KASI raw score was negatively associated with BDI raw score (p=0.019) (Table 3).
Conclusion
Many patients with cardiovascular disease experience depression and anxiety in a week since disease onset. Family history of CVD was related with depression and decreased activity was related with depression and anxiety. Because persistent emotional distress is associated with increased mortality, follow up assessment of emotional distress and specific treatment are needed in this group. |
