Investigation of mental health among hospital workers in the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The rapid spread of the COVID-19 epidemic has led to extraordinary measures taken worldwide, and has led to serious psychological disorders. Healthcare professionals face greater severity of stress burden, due both to their direct contact with patients with the virus and to the isolation dimension of this outbreak. OBJECTIVE: To examine psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and sleep disorders among healthcare professionals working in an emergency department and a COVID-19 clinic. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study including healthcare professionals in the emergency department and other units serving patients with COVID-19, of a training and research hospital in Turkey. METHODS: 210 volunteers, including 105 healthcare professionals in the emergency department and 105 healthcare professionals working in other departments rendering services for COVID-19 patients, were included in this study. A sociodemographic data form and the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HAD), Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), World Health Organization Quality of Life scale (WHOQOL-BREF-TR) and Religious Orientation Scale were applied to the volunteers. RESULTS: The perceived stress levels and PSQI subscores were found to be significantly higher among the volunteers working in the emergency department than among those in other departments. The risk of development of anxiety among women was 16.6 times higher than among men. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare professionals on the frontline need systematic regular psychosocial support mechanisms. Anxiety due to fear of infecting family members can be prevented through precautions such as isolation. However, it should be remembered that loneliness and feelings of missing family members consequent to isolation may increase the risk of depression.

Factors Associated With Psychological Outcomes of Healthcare Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Effects on Quality of Life

“…The high incidence of depression and anxiety among females may be explained by their concerns as mothers, wives, and caregivers about infecting their family members, including children, partners, or older people who live with them. This result supports similar evidence compiled by Araç et al, 2020. Other studies in SA, China and Italy have found that females are more likely to be depressed and anxious than males and relate the gender differences to the hormonal response to stress, as women's hormones increase both stress and anxiety responses (Al-Hanawi et al, 2020;Alzaid et al, 2020& Moccia et al, 2020.…”

“…The literature has other studies with the same results (Araç, Dönmezdil, 2020, Asante, Li, Liao, Huang, Hao, 2019. Likewise, QoL is severely affected in all cases of psychiatric or physical disorders, and this is reflected in the scores on scales that measure QoL (Araç, Dönmezdil, 2020). Furthermore, in the present work, particular risk factors were more affected than others.…”

“…Since QoL can be negatively affected by psychological health, the negative changes detected through WHOQOL were consistent with reports in the literature showing that QoL scores were low among patients with high depression scale scores. The literature has other studies with the same results (Araç, Dönmezdil, 2020, Asante, Li, Liao, Huang, Hao, 2019. Likewise, QoL is severely affected in all cases of psychiatric or physical disorders, and this is reflected in the scores on scales that measure QoL (Araç, Dönmezdil, 2020).…”

Sleep quality and COVID-19 outcomes: the evidence-based lessons in the framework of predictive, preventive and personalised (3P) medicine

“…Table 2 presents the collected data with corresponding interpretation towards analysed sleep quality in healthcare givers. The analysed data indicate that working with COVID-19-affected patients is associated not only with a poorer sleep quality and insomnia symptoms, but also with mental health risks such as increased stress and burnout as well as a strong predisposition to mental disorders such as depression and anxiety [56,57,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77].…”

Two separate and important points that should not be forgotten among the consequences of the pandemic: psychology of healthcare workers and readmission of discharged COVID-19 patients

“…We see that you have overlooked this topic. Although there were 9 original articles [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] from Turkey indexed in LitCovid between the dates specified in your study, we haven't seen any article about this topic among the selected articles. The study held in our hospital, namely Evaluation of the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety severity of physicians working in the internal medicine department of a tertiary care hospital: a crosssectional survey yielded that particularly female doctors and physicians who have elderly family members and family members with chronic medical conditions showed more severe symptoms of anxiety [3].…”