Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress in cardiovascular patients: a case-control study

Abstract

Abstract Background Among the important issues that cardiovascular patients face are their psychological problems, which should be known and their consequences reduced. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among cardiac patients, as well as among healthy individuals. Methods This is a hospital-based case-control study conducted in Imam Ali Hospital, Kermanshah, Iran. The clinical population comprised cardiac patients and the research sample included 826 individual and the DASS-21 standard questionnaire was used to evaluate levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. According to the variable scale, the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test, independent T test were used. Using logistic regression, the relationship between depression, anxiety and stress level with heart disease was investigated. A significance level of 5% was considered and STATA software version 14.2 was used for all analyzes. Results The average depression, anxiety, and stress levels were higher in patients (16.05 ± 3.38, 16.07 ± 3.31, 16.63 ± 3.20) than in the control groups (13.65 ± 3.97, 13.64 ± 3.60, 14.03 ± 3.56) respectively. These differences were statistically significant. The results of all three univariate analyses showed that for each unit increase in depression level, the risk of heart disease increased by 1.19 times. Similarly, for each unit increase in anxiety and stress levels, the risk of heart disease increased by 1.22 and 1.25 times, respectively. Conclusion The need to adopt policies and strategies focused on reducing and controlling risk factors can reduce the health and economic burden of these disorders in society in the long term.