Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Healthcare Workers

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a great impact on healthcare workers (HCWs) that includes negative mental health outcomes, such as post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. In this cross-sectional study, we report on mental health outcomes among HCWs in Cyprus. Data were collected between 3 May and 27 May 2020, with the use of an online questionnaire that included demographics (sex, age, occupation, education, work sector, years of work experience), the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) which assesses depressive symptoms, the Impact of Events Scale Revised (IES-R), which measures post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and the-10 item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) which quantifies stress responses. Participants (42% physicians, 24% nurses, 18% physiotherapists, 16% classified as “other”) were 58% of female gender and aged 21–76. A total of 79 (18.6%) and 62 HCWs (14.6%) reported clinically significant depressive (PHQ-9 ≥ 10) and post-traumatic stress (IES-R > 33) symptoms respectively. Nurses were more likely than physicians to suffer from depression (adjusted prevalence ratio 1.7 (1.06–2.73); p = 0.035) and PTSD (adjusted prevalence ratio 2.51 (1.49–4.23); p = 0.001). Even in a country with a rather low spread of the COVID-19, such as Cyprus, HCWs reported a substantial mental health burden, with nurses reporting increased depressive and PTSD symptoms compared to other HCWs.

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare staff at a combined elderly care and specialist palliative care facility: A cross-sectional study

“…24 Another publication measuring the pandemic's impact on mental health of healthcare workers in Cyprus reported that nurses were more likely than physicians and other healthcare workers to suffer depressive and PTSD symptoms. 25 This finding is consistent with other international studies and it is proposed that this relates to the fact that nurses have more direct, prolonged patient contact. [26][27][28] A systematic review and meta-analysis involving thirteen studies with a combined total of 33,062 participants reported the prevalence of depression, anxiety and insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Another publication measuring the pandemic’s impact on mental health of healthcare workers in Cyprus reported that nurses were more likely than physicians and other healthcare workers to suffer depressive and PTSD symptoms. 25 This finding is consistent with other international studies and it is proposed that this relates to the fact that nurses have more direct, prolonged patient contact. 26–28…”

Perceived Stress and Increased Food Consumption during the ‘Third Wave’ of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain

“…The total score ranges between 0 and 40. In the absence of a consensus on the cut-off values [ 31 ], in this study, those used by Adamson et al in 2020 were taken as the reference—low stress (0–13), moderate stress (14–26), and high stress (27–40) [ 26 ].…”

Hopelessness and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms among Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Any Role for Mediating Variables?

“…Furthermore, high stress levels with somatization related to working are reported in 18.1% to 80.1% [21]. Recent clinical studies confirmed these results, demonstrating a higher prevalence in young females with less working experience, particularly in nurses and in frontline staff compared to the medical doctor' population and second-line staff, respectively [14,22,24,28,31,43].…”

“…The real traumatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is quite unknown as it has been investigated only in terms of acute post-traumatic stress manifestations [23]. Several systematic reviews and clinical studies have evaluated post-traumatic stress symptoms in frontline healthcare workers, investigating clinical predictors, risk factors, and psychiatric manifestations [11,14,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. However, to our knowledge, no studies have reported a potential mediator between hopelessness and post-traumatic stress symptoms.…”