Depressed, anxious, and stressed: What have healthcare workers on the frontlines in Egypt and Saudi Arabia experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Abstract

Highlights HCWs in Egypt and Saudi-Arabia experienced depression, anxiety, and stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Female sex, age ≤30 years, attending night shifts, and watching/reading COVID-19 news associated with worse psychological disturbances. Providing psychological support to HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic is an urgent need.

Prevalence of stress, depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Forty-nine studies originated from China, four from each Turkey and Iran, three from Italy, two each from Germany, Jordan, Nepal, Pakistan, Spain, the USA and the UK, and one from each of the following: Austrian, Bahrain, Croatia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Korea, Kosovo, KSA, Malawi, Mongolian, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore and Switzerland. Two study was conducted in more than one country [ 38 , 39 ]. (See Table 1 for a general characteristics of studies).…”

“…Stress was estimated in 40 studies [ 18 , 20 , 25 , 27 , 29 , 33 , 35 , 36 , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] , [49] , [50] , [51] , [52] , [53] , [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] , [64] , [65] , [66] , [67] , [68] , [69] , [70] ]. The overall pooled point estimates of prevalence for stress varied between 10% and 84% ( Fig.…”

“…The pooled prevalence according to the month of data collected was as follows: February: 32% ( n = 14; 95% CI 25–41; I2 = 98), March: 45% (n = 6; 95% CI 37–53; I2 = 96) and April: 50% ( n = 13; 95% CI 35–66; I2 = 98). Seventeen studies [ 20 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 43 , 44 , 46 , 54 , [57] , [58] , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] , 67 , 69 ] involving nurses who were working on the frontline showed stress prevalence at 46% (95% CI = 39–54; I 2 = 97), whereas 20 studies including mixed nurses working in the frontline and second line showed the stress prevalence was 42% (95% CI = 31–53, I 2 = 99). Thirteen studies that used the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) showed a pooled prevalence of stress at 50% (95% CI = 41–59, I 2 = 98), whereas eight studies [ 35 , 45 , [54] , [55] , [56] , 63 , 64 , 67 ] using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) had a pooled prevalence of 50% (95% CI = 37–63, I 2 = 99).…”

“…The overall pooled point estimates of prevalence for anxiety varied between 8% and 91%, which was reported by 73 studies [ [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [28] , [29] , [30] , 32 , 34 , 35 , [37] , [38] , [39] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , 48 , 49 , 51 , [53] , [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] , 62 , [64] , [65] , [66] , [67] , [71] , [72] , [73] , [74] , [75] , [76] , [77] , [78] , [79] , [80] , [81] , [82] , [83] , [84] , [85] , [86] , [87] , [88] , [89] , [90] , [91] , [92] , [93] , [94] , [95] , [96] , [97] , [98] , [99] ,…”

Work-Related Challenges among Primary Health Centers Workers during COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia

“…The increased stress levels among HCWs in fever clinics who were on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic came in line with previous national and international studies assessing stress among similar study populations. In a study conducted on 426 HCWs from Saudi Arabia and Egypt (48.4% physicians, 24.2% nurses and 27.4% other HCWs) on the frontlines fighting COVID-19, more than half (55.9%) of them had stress [55]. Another study conducted on 5062 HCWs (19.8% physicians, 62.2% nurses and 18.0% technicians) treating patients with COVID-19 in China showed that 29.8% of participants had stress [56].…”