Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is one of the most common infections that mostly affects the human respiratory system. It has the potential to induce mental health issues. Survivors of critical illness frequently face stress, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, and long-term health impairments, which can have a detrimental influence on their quality of life. Objective: To determine the frequency of depression among survivors of covid-19 infection and its impact on the quality of life. Study Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional study. Settings: Department of Medicine, Isra University Hospital, Hyderabad Pakistan. Duration: Study duration was six months from July 2021 to January 2022. Methods: A total of 158 individuals with age of 18 to 65 years old, who had previously acquired COVID-19 infection and then survived as shown by negative PCR findings during less than six months of either gender were included. After takin complete medical history verbal informed consent was taken. All the participants were assessed regarding depression by using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and quality of life was assessed by using the 16-item quality of life scale (QOL). All the information was documented by the study proforma and SPSS version 26 was used for the purpose of data analysis. Results: A total of 158 covid-19 survivor individuals were studied, their mean age was 33.34 ± 12.3 years and males were 56.3%. Out of all 36.1% of the cases had no depression, while 31.6% had mild depression, 19.0% had moderate depression, severe depression was in 10.8% cases and only 4 cases had profound depression. As per overall quality of life assessment, 55.7% individuals were satisfied, 36.7% were average satisfied and 7.6% were dissatisfied. Conclusion: Many of the post covid survivors had mild to moderate depression and many individuals were observed to be the average satisfied by their quality of life. Few individuals have still mild sadness and anxiety.