Page 99 - Livre électronique du congrès des RFTP 2022

P53
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON
COPD PATIENTS: A CASE CONTROL STUDY (PRELIMINARY
RESULTS)

A. BARKOUS, K. DERBEL, S. KHALDI, A. SAYAHI, F. GUEZGUEZ, S. ROUATBI
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY AND FUNCTIONAL EXPLORATIONS, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF
FARHAT HACHED, SOUSSE- TUNISIA

Research laboratory, LR12SP09

INTRODUCTION : COPD is often accompanied by co-morbidities such as anxiety,
which remains under-diagnosed due to the tendency to prioritize respiratory
symptom control. Few studies have suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic have a
major psychological impact on COPD patients.
Objective: Compare the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on COPD
patients with non-COPD subjects and to look for correlations of psychological score
with pulmonary function and life quality.

METHODS : It is a case control study which includes 45 adult subjects: 30 patients
with COPD (G1) and 15 healthy subjects (G2). All subjects underwent the spirometry
with measurement of Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital
capacity (FVC). For the G1 spirometry show an obstructive ventilatory defect
(FEV1/FVC < lower limit of normal (LLN)) and for G2 they have a normal spirometry
(FEV1/FVC > LLN). The global anxiety disorder (GAD-7) score is used to evaluate
anxiety in cases and controls, the COPD assessment test (CAT) score is used to
evaluate COPD patients’ quality of life and the score of GIRERD is used to evaluate
their therapeutic compliance. All these tools are validated in Arabic language.
RESULTS : The mean age was 64.55 in G1 vs. 54.33 in G2 (p< 0.05) and the mean GAD-
7 was 5.4 in G1 vs. 4.47 in G2 (p> 0.05).

In G1, life quality impact assessment, according to CAT score, was low in 6.7%,
medium in 31.1%, high in 24.4% and very high in 4.4% of the patients. In this group, 36.7%
of patients were with no anxiety, 53.3% with minimal anxiety, 6.7% with moderate
anxiety and 3.3% with severe anxiety. In G2, 53.3% of patients were with no anxiety,
33.3% with minimal and 13.3% with moderate anxiety. There were no cases of severe
anxiety in G2. The severity of anxiety according to the GAD-7 score is correlated to life
quality of COPD patients (p= 0.005, r= 0.496).

CONCLUSION : Covid-19 pandemic seems to cause a major psychological impact on
both COPD patients and healthy subjects, suggesting that post Covid-19 anxiety are

Page | 92