THE MENTAL HEALTH STATUS OF INPATIENTS WITH NEWLY DIAGNOSED HEMATOLOGICAL CANCER DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

OBJECTIVE: There is limited data in the literature on the mental health of newly diagnosed hematological cancer (HC) patients in COVID-19 pandemic. This study evaluates the mental health statuses of HC inpatients diagnosed during the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to the statuses of patients diagnosed with HC before the pandemic. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional survey collected the mental health measurements of 77 inpatients with HC between March and May 2021. The levels of depression, generalized anxiety, distress, sleep disorder, health anxiety, trait anxiety, coronaphobia, and resilience in HC patients newly diagnosed during the pandemic (NDHC) (n=38) and HC patients diagnosed before the pandemic (BPHC) (n=39) were compared. The relationships between predictive factors and cancer patients’ mental health statuses were evaluated. RESULTS: Depression (63.2% vs. 35.9%, p=0.017) and sleep disorder (67.8% vs. 38.5, p=0.016) were significantly higher, while generalized anxiety (57.9% vs. 38.5%, p=0.088) and distress (52.6% vs. 33.3%, p=0.087) were higher in NDHC.Health anxiety was more common in BPHC (53.8% vs. 31.6%, p=0.048).Among NDHC, women had more anxiety symptoms than men (76.5% vs. 42.9%, p=0.037).Diagnosing newly increased the risk of severity of depression and sleep disorders, bu decreased the risk of health anxiety. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that patients with HC are vulnerable to mental health problems in the COVID-19 pandemic. This vulnerability is higher in newly diagnosed HC patients than in patients diagnosed before the pandemic. These findings may help develop interventions that reduce the vulnerability to adverse psychological effects by identifying risk factors for HC patients under pandemic conditions.