A Wake-up Call for Burnout in Portuguese Physicians During the COVID-19 Outbreak: National Survey Study

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 outbreak has imposed physical and psychological pressure on health care professionals, including frontline physicians. Hence, evaluating the mental health status of physicians during the current pandemic is important to define future preventive guidelines among health care stakeholders. Objective In this study, we intended to study alterations in the mental health status of Portuguese physicians working at the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic and potential sociodemographic factors influencing their mental health status. Methods A nationwide survey was conducted during May 4-25, 2020, to infer differences in mental health status (depression, anxiety, stress, and obsessive compulsive symptoms) between Portuguese physicians working at the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic and other nonfrontline physicians. A representative sample of 420 participants stratified by age, sex, and the geographic region was analyzed (200 frontline and 220 nonfrontline participants). Moreover, we explored the influence of several sociodemographic factors on mental health variables including age, sex, living conditions, and household composition. Results Our results show that being female (β=1.1; t=2.5; P=.01) and working at the frontline (β=1.4; t=2.9; P=.004) are potential risk factors for stress. In contrast, having a house with green space was a potentially beneficial factor for stress (β=–1.5; t=–2.5; P=.01) and anxiety (β=–1.1; t=–2.4; P=.02). Conclusions It is important to apply protective mental health measures for physicians to avoid the long-term effects of stress, such as burnout.

COVID-19 Concerns and Personality of Commerce Workers: Its Influence on Burnout

“…In that case, we also obtained significant results for all variables considered, except for education, in line with the findings of previous studies. Women presented higher levels of burnout than men [30], married participants exhibited lower levels of burnout than single or divorced participants, younger and less experienced employees displayed higher levels of burnout than older employees [16,35], having children represented a protective factor against burnout [34], and finally, having taken a sick leave was related to higher burnout levels [38,39]. The conclusion that we can obtain from our study regarding the influence of sociodemographic variables on burnout is that even with significant differences between the groups, these types of variables are not capable of predicting, in an acceptable way, burnout that a worker can experience.…”

“…In addition to Big-Five personality traits, several studies have discovered other variable clusters that predict burnout development [28,29] that may have also had a significant influence during the pandemic. For example, individuals with higher levels of risk perception engage more in protective behaviors [29,30] and therefore exhibit lower levels of COVID-19 concerns. However, people with a tendency to be active and sociable could present higher levels of COVID-19 concerns due to their difficulty in complying with mandatory social-distancing measures.…”

Perceived sources of occupational burn-out and embitterment among front-line health workers for COVID-19 control in Gyeonggi province, South Korea: a qualitative study

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Furthermore, many studies have examined mental health symptoms quantitatively, providing a narrow perspective on the dynamic contexts that underlie mental health outcomes and possible solutions that reflect the needs and circumstances of health workers. [22][23][24] To respond to this research gap, this study employs a qualitative approach to understand perceived sources of burn-out and embitterment among FHWs responsible for epidemiological investigation and contact tracing tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aim to provide recommendations for improving institutional and structural factors that may aggravate FHWs' mental health conditions.…”

A Psiquiatria em Diálogo com a Sociedade

“…3 Os profissionais de saúde foram sujeitos a demandas especialmente significativas, apresentando também elevados níveis de burnout e sofrimento psicológico, em particular quando expostos à linha da frente do combate à pandemia. [4][5][6] Ao longo do tempo verificou -se uma redução dos sintomas de sofrimento psicológico com adaptação à "nova realidade", identificando -se trajetórias distintas que ajudam a compreender alguns fatores que favorecem (género feminino, idade jovem, trabalhadores ativos e elevados níveis de extraversão) e perturbam essa adaptação (sofrer de doença física ou psiquiátrica e elevados níveis de neuroticismo). 7 Ao aumentar os níveis globais de stress, ao acentuar as dificuldades daqueles que eram mais vulneráveis e ao aprofundar as desigualdades económicas e sociais, a pandemia pode ter aumentado o risco de desenvolvimento de doenças psiquiátricas.…”