Objective: To assess in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients: (1) differences in the prevalence of depression and anxiety between samples selected from 22 countries; (2) the association of depression and anxiety with age, education, diagnostic category, favourable behaviours, use of cardioprotective drugs, and reaching the secondary prevention treatment targets.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Methods: The study group consisted of 8580 patients from 22 European countries examined at least 6 months after hospitalization due to CHD. Depression and anxiety were assessed using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).
Results: Prevalence of depression (HADS depression score ≥ 8) varied from 8.2% to 35.7% in men and from 10.3% to 62.5% in women. Prevalence of anxiety (HADS anxiety score ≥ 8) varied from 12.0% to 41.8% in men and from 21.5% to 63.7% in women. Older age, female sex, low education, and no history of invasive treatment were associated with more frequent depression and anxiety. Depression and anxiety were associated with less frequent modification of lifestyle. Depression was related with body mass index, waist circumference, fasting glucose, and more frequent self-reported diabetes but not with reaching the treatment targets for blood pressure and lipids.
Conclusions: High prevalence of depression and anxiety in CHD patients, and relation with less frequent lifestyle modification, call to integrate methods of identification and minimizing unfavourable effects of depression and anxiety into the cardiac rehabilitation and prevention programmes.