The relationship between fear of COVID-19 and depression, anxiety and stress in persons with disabilities: A cross-sectional study.
Hatice Güdül Öz, Evşen Nazik
PMID 37032008WHAT IT FOUND
Among 178 adults with disabilities, higher fear of COVID-19 tracked with higher depression, anxiety and stress.
People with chronic illness, hearing or vision loss, and those getting news from family reported the most distress. Average mental health scores were in the normal range.
Key findings
01Fear of COVID-19 correlated positively with total depression, anxiety and stress scores, and with each subscale separately.
02Chronic disease-related disability, family social support and total fear score were the best predictors of overall distress; the model explained 40.5% of the variance.
03Hearing and vision disability, living in a large family, and relying on family for COVID-19 information predicted higher fear scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study measured everything at one point in time, so it cannot say whether fear caused distress or distress caused fear. Participants had to be literate and have internet access, which excludes people with the most severe disabilities or the least resources. The survey was shared through online disability groups, so the sample may not represent people with disabilities who are not connected to those groups. Online self-report can be misunderstood, and the authors note that face-to-face interviews might have produced different answers.
Declared interests
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors, and the research did not receive specific funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the correlations as proof that fear of COVID-19 caused depression, anxiety and stress. The study measured both at the same time, so the direction of influence is unknown.