Introduction/Objective
Background: The emergence of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019 caused a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, raising many questions for the scientific community and researchers. The infection ranges from asymptomatic to fatal clinical course mainly affecting the lungs, in the form of an acute respiratory syndrome. However, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted human health in multiple areas. A recent study has shown that the prevalence of depression symptoms in the adult population in the US tripled after COVID-19 compared to before the pandemic. Lower social resources are one of the reasons the authors explained. More studies from different regions have revealed that the pandemic caused moderate to severe depression (16.5%) in people with chronic medical illnesses in Spain and 32.4% of moderate to severe depression in Italy. The geriatric population is more prone to depression as they usually have chronic medical illnesses in addition to limited socialization and social resources that have been severely impacted by the pandemic.
Objective
We plan to study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on depression and the use of medications compared to the period before COVID-19. The data set will be obtained from 3 nursing homes using CASPER report variables.
Design/Methodology
A retrospective study was conducted on CMS data collected from CASPER reports. Data collection: We obtained data from 3 different Nursing Home Facilities in Lansing Area, Michigan. CMS data for each facility, from March to October 2019 compared to data from March to October 2020.
Variables compared
Depression, Anxiety, and Use of antipsychotics. We compared variable percentages at the local/facilities, state, and national levels.
Results
Data analysis showed a significant increase in nursing home residents diagnosed with depression in 2020. This increase is more prominent at the state and national levels. The risk percentage of depression increased from 2.6 % in 2019 to 3.3% in 2020 at Michigan State, while nationally, it jumped from 5.1 % in 2019 to 7.4% in 2020. The data didn't reveal a significant change in the use of medications (antipsychotics) or anxiety.
| Depression Inference (t-test Results) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | T-stat | D.f | MeanDiff | LCL | UCL | p-value |
| Local | 2.8339 | 15 | 2.0925 | 0.5187 | 3.6663 | 0.0126 |
| State | 14.3211 | 7 | 0.7625 | 0.6366 | 0.8884 | <0.0001 |
| National | 16.2299 | 7 | 2.1125 | 1.8047 | 2.4203 | <0.0001 |
Conclusion/Discussion
Although the sample size we studied is small–3 nursing homes–our findings suggested a possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the increased percentage of depression among the geriatric population in Michigan State and the US. We think the limited socialization, activities, and the change in nursing home visitation policies have an undeniable role in decreasing the threshold for depression in this vulnerable age group. These results align with other studies from different parts of the world that provided evidence of the COVID-19 pandemic causing depression in adults. More studies are needed, with more inclusive samples from different states and a more in-depth dive into the use of antipsychotic medications and anxiety, which usually coincide.
Disclosures
All authors have stated there are no financial disclosures to be made that are pertinent to this abstract.