Latent profile analysis of anxiety and related factors among stroke patients’ spouses

To explore the potential classification of anxiety symptoms in stroke patients' spouses and analyze the characteristics of each category. From November 2019 to August 2020, a total of 224 stroke patients in the department of neurology of a tertiary hospital in Henan Province, and 224 spouse caregivers were conveniently selected. The general information questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item, the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item scale, and modified Rankin Scale was used to assess patient and caregiver general information, anxiety, depression and patient prognosis, respectively. Latent profile analysis was used to analyze stroke patients' spouse anxiety symptoms, and polynomial logistic regression analysis was performed to assess factors associated with each category. The mean age of the patients were 62.54 years and the patients' spouses were 62.23 years. The patients' spouse anxiety symptoms were categorized into four groups: high anxiety-worry (13.4%); high anxiety-adaptive (58.9%); medium anxiety-high toughness (7.6%); anxiety-low risk (20.1%). There is heterogeneity in the anxiety symptoms of spouse caregivers of stroke patients, and nurses should develop targeted interventions based on the anxiety characteristics of different potential categories of spouse caregivers and their influencing factors in order to improve their anxiety symptoms.