Assessment of fear, anxiety, obsession and functional impairment of COVID-19 amongst health-care workers and trainees: A cross-sectional study in Nepal

Abstract

Background: The emergence of the COVID-19 epidemic threw the world into turmoil. The medical community bore the brunt of the pandemic's toll. Long work hours, and a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and social support all had an influence on mental health. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among Lumbini Medical College Teaching Hospital students and employees in Palpa, Nepal. Data entailing their demographic details, pre-existing comorbidities, or death in the family due to COVID-19 was collected using a self-administered survey. In addition, the level of fear, anxiety, obsession, and functional impairment due to COVID-19 was recorded using previously validated respective scales. Results: In total, 403 health-care workers and trainees participated in our study. The average age of the study participants was 23±4 years, and more than half of them (n=262, 65%) were females. A significant association was found between fear score with age (p-value=0.04), gender (p-value <0.01) and occupation (p-value<0.001). The participants suffering from chronic diseases (p-value=0.36), and those who had experienced a COVID-19 death in the family (p-value=0.18), were not found to be significantly obsessed with COVID-19. However, for those who had experienced a COVID-19 death in the family (p-value=0.51) and age (p-value=0.34), these factors were not found to be significantly associated with higher anxiety levels. Nursing students suffered from a significantly greater functional impairment than other medical professionals (mean score=269.15, p-value < 0.001). A moderately positive correlation was observed between fear, anxiety, obsession, and functional impairment scales. Conclusion: This study revealed various socio-demographic characteristics as risk factors for psychological stress in the people related to the health-care profession of Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic. A viable answer to this quandary might be adequate psychosocial intervention by health-care authorities, increased social support, and the introduction of better mental health management measures for the front-line medical workers.

Assessment of Covid-19 Obsession Among Hospital Workers in Jos-South LGA Plateau State Nigeria

“…Result of hypothesis one is significantly possible considering that more of the older hospital workers compared to the younger ones had dysfunctional thinking with COVID-19 (COVID-19 obsession). Result of this study reflected the findings of Atreya, et al, (2022), significant association between COVID-19 fear and age were found. Also, Srivastava, et al (2020) reported that higher age group had significant COVID-19 obsession.…”

“…Similarly, findings of a web-based study among Indian population showed that the prevalence of obsession due to COVID-19 was 12.47%. Furthermore, significant higher obsession score was found among females compared to males (Srivastava, Bala, Srivastava, Mishra, Shamim, & Sinha, 2020).In relation to age, findings of a cross-sectional study among students and employees of Lumbini Medical College Teaching Hospital Palpa, Nepal, significant association between COVID-19 fear and age was reported (Atreya, Nepal, Menezes, Shurjeel, Qazi, Ram, Usman, Ghimire, Marhatta, Islam, Sapkota, & Garbuja, 2022). Cunning and Hodes, (2021) reported that COVID-19 pandemic appears to be associated with obsessivecompulsive symptoms in younger people.…”