Sociodemographic profile, clinical characteristics, anxiety, and depression of 74 patients infected with COVID-19: first report from Bangladesh

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Brief description: The pandemic of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has cost a large number of lives and is causing substantial mental stress among people. We conducted a study to identify the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and prevalence of anxiety and depression among confirmed COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey using a preformed questionnaire adapted in Google form was conducted for data collection. The form was shared along with a brief introduction and rationale via Facebook, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Viber, and What’s App. Formal ethical clearance was taken from the Biomedical Research Foundation, Bangladesh. Informed consent was ensured before participation. Results: Seventy-four patients with COVID-19 who had an average age of 42.59±14.43 years with male predominance (77%) were included. A total of 29.7% were doing health-care related jobs, and 14.9% lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Patients had a median income of BDT 30000. Of all, 87.8% of patients were symptomatic and presented with fever (77%), cough (58.8%), breathlessness (24.3%), myalgia (24.3%), sore throat (21.6%), fatigue (17.6%), nausea and/or vomiting (12.2%), headache (12.2%), runny nose (9.5%), chest pain (9.5%), diarrhea (8.1%), ARDS (2.7%), stuffy nose (2.7%), conjunctivitis (1.4%) and oral ulcer (1.4%). Overall, the prevalence of anxiety and depression was 60% and 52.9%, respectively. Among the participants, 11.4% had only anxiety, 4.3% had only depression and 48.6% had both. Conclusion: Patients were mostly middle aged, male and healthy workers. Typical presentations were fever and cough. Nearly two-thirds of the patients had either or both anxiety and depression.