Brief report
Association between depression and contact precautions in veterans at hospital admission

Presented in part at the Fifth Decennial International Conference on Healthcare-Associated Infections, Atlanta, GA, March 18-22, 2010.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2010.06.024Get rights and content

Contact Precautions (CP) have been associated with depression and anxiety. We enrolled 103 patients on admission to a VA hospital and administered the Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale (HADS). The mean unadjusted HADS score was 10% higher in patients on CP (14.3 vs 13.0; P = .47), and the association was stronger after adjusting for other variables (mean difference, 2.2; P = .21). Although underpowered, in the largest study to date, patients on CP tended toward more depression and anxiety.

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Methods

Between June 1, 2009 and October 30, 2009, patients admitted to the general acute care units at the Baltimore VA Medical Center were approached for participation. Enrollment took place within 48 hours of admission. After completing informed consent, each patient was given a questionnaire that elicited demographic information and included a question regarding the patient’s comfort with CP and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Administrative data was obtained from the VA

Results

A total of 103 patients completed the HADS measure within 48 hours of admission to the VA hospital (80% within 24 hours). The sample was predominately male (96/103). Twenty of the 103 patients were on CP (20.5%). There was a trend toward slightly older age in the patients on CP (Table 1). There were no significant differences in comorbidities between patients on CP and those not on CP. Of the 103 patients, 39 (38%) reported being uncomfortable with CP.

The mean HADS score was 14.3 (95%

Discussion

In this study, HADS scores tended to be higher in patients on CP than in those not on CP, but the difference was not statistically significant. We found differences in the combined HADS score of 1.27 in the unadjusted analysis and 2.22 in the adjusted analysis, although the study was underpowered to identify a smaller difference between groups. The increase in HADS scores appears to be greater in those with recently initiated CP, although the number of patients is small.

Nearly 40% of the total

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Funded by The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Grant 1 K08 HS18111-01 (to D.J.M.) and Veteran’s Administration VA Health Services Research & Development (HSR&D) Grant HSRD IIR 04-123-2 (to E.N.P.).

Conflict of interest: None to report.

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