Effect of scheduled visiting on hospital anxiety and depression of hospitalized acute coronary syndrome patient in cardiac care unit in Baqiyatallah hospital

Anxiety and depression are common disorders among acute coronary syndrome patients while hospitalizing in the cardiac care unit. In this respect, that, in such a ward, visiting is usually restricted. This study has been implemented to investigate the effect of planned visiting on hospital anxiety and depression in acute coronary syndrome patients, hospitalized in the cardiac care unit.
This is a quasi-experimental study on 72 patients with acute coronary syndrome admitted to the cardiac care unit of Baqiyatallah Hospital in Tehran. The samples were selected with purposeful sampling method and randomly divided into case and control groups. Planned visiting program includes three times visiting a day in the experimental group versus a routine visiting in the control group. The results have been collected through Hospital Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire in the first and third days of hospitalization in both groups.
The mean of anxiety score in the case group significantly decreased in the third day in comparison with the first day(p=0.021) but in the control group, the mean of anxiety score in the third day in comparison with the first day was not significant(p=0.102). The mean score of depression in the case group decreased in the third day of hospitalization compared with the first day(p=0.38) but in the control group, the mean of depression score increased in the third day of hospitalization compared with the first day (p=0.402) These changes were not significant in both groups.
The results of this research indicated the positive effect of planned visiting in comparison with the restricted visiting on decreasing hospital anxiety and depression in cardiac patients. Therefore, the implementation of such visiting programs is recommended to these patients to achieve the better and faster care and results.