Coping modes and cognitive-behavioral responses of anxiety in patients hospitalized for COVID-19

Abstract

The process of illness, from its diagnostic suspicion to the moment of hospitalization and the unfolding of the recovery stages, can trigger stressors, which end up requiring the coping efforts of the patient in this kind of situation. Thinking about the current context, marked by the nuances of the pandemic by COVID-19, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the correlation between two variables: the different ways of coping with illness used by patients in the context of hospitalization and the presence of anxiety symptoms/anxiety behaviors in the population studied. We carried out the present proposal through empirical replication of a previously conducted study. Aiming to obtain the specific data, we used the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD), the Problem Coping Modes Scale and a Socioeconomic Questionnaire. The participant sample consisted of 50 subjects over 18 years of age who underwent the process of hospitalization in a general hospital by COVID-19 between 2020 and 2021. Of these, 42% scored above 12 in HAD, classifying themselves as having probable anxiety symptoms during hospitalization. In addition, we found that the most prevalent style of coping with illness among the participants was to focus on the problem, followed by the focus on religious practices/fanciful thinking, and the coping focused on social support. Furthermore, we observed a significant correlation between the mode of coping with the illness focused on emotion and anxious symptoms (r=0.45, with p<0,001). The results of this study point to the importance of developing/improving effective strategies for mental health care in the context of hospitalization, which consider not only the anxiety presented, but also the coping styles that can be reinforced with interventions in this sense, also serving as a basis for further investigations.