Health anxiety and Related Factors to It in Recovered Hospitalized Elderly Patients with COVID-19

Health anxiety is one of the common mental problems during the Covid-19 epidemic. Considering the physical vulnerability of the elderly and their awareness of this issue, this problem can be more common in this age group and affect their mental health. The present study was conducted with the purpose of determining the level of Health anxiety and related factors to it in recovered hospitalized elderly patients with COVID-19.

This study was a descriptive-correlational research and the statistical population was all elderly people with a history of being infected with Covid-19 and subsequent hospitalization in Shohada hospital in Sarpole Zahab, Kermanshah province. 198 elderly people were randomly selected from the list of hospitalized patients and were examined by completing the Salkovskis et al. short health anxiety inventory and demographic characteristics questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software and using Chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Mann-Whitney U test and Cramer’s V, Kendall’s Tau C correlation coefficients.

The results showed that 31.31% of the elderly suffered from high health anxiety and more than half of the elderly population (58.07%) experienced moderate to high health anxiety. There was a significant relationship between the demographic variables of sex (P=0.001), age (P<0.001), marital status (P<0.001), history of chronic disease (P=0.015) and the level of physical activity (P<0.001) with the level of health anxiety (p≤0.05).

Health anxiety is prevalent among recovered hospitalized elderly patients with COVID-19. Providing the mental health of this group of the elderly, along with their physical health, should be considered during the current epidemic. Adequate physical activity can play a protective role in this regard.