Mental health of cardiac patients in Gilgit,Pakistan: A cross-sectional study

Objective: to assess and compare mental health of cardiac patients with disease-free individuals. methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out at the combined military hospital,gilgit-baltistan,pakistan,from august to december 2016,and comprised cardiac patients in group a and healthy controls in group b. data was collected using mental health inventory,a 38-item tool to measure general psychological distress and wellbeing. cardiac patients’ mental health was compared with illness-free individuals by applying descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. spss 21 was used for data analysis. results: of the 80 participants,40(50%) were patients and the rest were controls. the mean mental health inventory score in group b was 150.72±19.94 compared to 140.35±22.83in group a (p<0.05). cardiac patients’ mean score on psychological distress was 82.4±14.85 compared to 75.87±15.34in controls (p<0.05). the mean level of anxiety was 31.75±8.01 and that of depression was 14.58±3.58 in patients compared to 26.70±6.74 (p<0.01) and 12.65±4.34 (p<0.05) in the controls. conclusion: cardiac patients experienced higher level of depression and anxiety. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.