Gender Based Comparison of Psychological Distress Among Covid-19 Patients at Rawalpindi Institute of Urology & Transplantation Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To  gauge  gender  based  difference  in  psychological distress   among   COVID-19   patients   admitted   at   Rawalpindi Institute of Urology & Transplantation Pakistan. Subjects  &  Methods: A   comparative   analytical   research   was carried  out  among  61  COVID-19  patients  admitted  at  Rawalpindi Institute  of  Urology  &  Transplantation  during  May  2020.  Study subjects   were   enrolled   in   this   research   through   consecutive sampling.    Patients    were    interviewed    to    fill    in    Kessler Psychological  Distress  Scale  (K  10).  Data  was  analyzed  by  using SPSS  version  25.  Two  sample  z-tests  were  applied  to  determine gender   based   difference   in   degree   of   psychological   distress among  COVID-19  patients.  P ≤0.05  was  considered  statistically significant.Results: Mean age of COVID-19 patients enrolled in this study was 41.6 ±10.97 years. Out of total 61 COVID-19 patients, 45 (73.8%) were  males  while  16  (26.2%)  were  females.  Most  (71.1%)  of  the males  in  our  study  were  psychologically  sound  and  increased proportion  of  females  (31.3%)  had  severe  psychological distress. Females   were   found   to   more   psychologically   distressed   in comparison with males (P 0.00). Conclusion: Female COVID-19 patients being more psychologically  distressed  should  be  properly  counseled  and undergo psychotherapy to mitigate the severity of distress