Effects of visiting restrictions on anxiety and depression in patients hospitalized for surgery: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Surgical patients frequently experience anxiety and depression, associated with postoperative complications. In cases of infective diseases pandemic, patients who have undergone surgery are subjected to strict visiting restrictions (VR) during their hospitalization, which could lead to a new/unique stressful situation. The purpose in this study is to assess the effects of VR on anxiety and depression in patients who underwent surgery. This cross-sectional study included patients who underwent surgery. The questionnaire includes the presence of VR during hospitalization, clinical characteristics (e.g., age at admission, sex, and underlying diseases). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to evaluate anxiety and depression with cutoff values of 8/9 points. Of the 100 patients who underwent surgery, the mean ± standard deviation of age was 50.4 ± 13.0 years (male: 46%). The most frequent underlying reason for surgery was orthopaedic disease (27.0%). Anxiety and depression were observed in 30.0% and 74.0% in the included patients, respectively. Severity of anxiety and depression in patients without VR significantly decreased after surgery. In patients with VR, although severity of anxiety significantly decreased after surgery, severity of depression did not. Multivariate analysis showed improvement of depression in patients with VR was significantly lower than that in patients without VR. Careful attention to presence and/or severity of depression would be mandatory especially in patients with depression before surgery under VR situations. Recognizing that VR affect the mental distress would be important to manage patients who underwent surgery under VR situation.