The Relationship Between Quality of Life and Coping Strategies in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic may have destructive effects on patients’ mental health and quality of life (QoL). Objectives: This study aimed to assess the relationship between QoL and coping strategies in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Methods: This cross sectional descriptive-analytical study was performed at Imam Reza Hospital in Tabriz City for 2 months. Seventy hospitalized patients with COVID-19 were recruited by convenience sampling. The patients completed the adapted version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF) and the Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ). We indicated a critical value of 60 as the optimal cut-off point to assess perceived QoL. Also, low, moderate, and high coping strategies are dedicated to 0 - 66, 66 - 110, and 110, respectively. Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient in SPSS version 21. Results: Seventy patients were enrolled, including 35 males and 35 females with a mean age of 39.69 ± 11.31 years. QoL’s social and physical dimensions had the highest and lowest mean scores (65.18 ± 18.99 and 41.40 ± 17.22, respectively). The results showed that 3 out of 5 dimensions had a mean score of 60. Regarding CSQ, the mean scores of problem- and emotional-oriented coping strategies were 87.27 ± 15.45 and 85.05 ± 12.47, respectively. Most participants had moderate problem- and emotional-oriented coping strategies (85.5% and 92.8%, respectively). Conclusions: The current study showed that the QoL score was less than 60 in most of the QoL dimensions in COVID-19 patients. Moreover, most of the participants used coping strategies moderately. Therefore, it is recommended to perform further studies to compare the impact of coping strategies on QoL in patients and the control group.