Prevalence of Stress in Healthcare Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Northeast Mexico: A Remote, Fast Survey Evaluation, Using an Adapted COVID-19 Stress Scales

Abstract

The world is currently subjected to the worst health crisis documented in modern history: an epidemic led by the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). At the epicenter of this crisis, healthcare professionals continue working to safeguard our well-being. To the regular high levels of stress, COVID-19 adds even more so to healthcare professionals in particular, depending on their area, specialty, and type of work. Here we investigated what are the tendencies or areas most affected. Through an adaptation of the original COVID-stress scales, we developed a remote, fast test designed for healthcare professionals in the northeastern part of Mexico, an important part of the country with economic and cultural ties to the United States. Our results showed four key correlations as highly dependent: work area–xenophobia (p < 0.045), work with COVID patients–traumatic stress (p < 0.001), total number of COVID patients per day–traumatic stress (p < 0.027), and total number of COVID patients–compulsive checking and reassurance. Overall, we concluded that normal levels of stress have increased (mild–moderate). Additionally, we determine that the fear of being an asymptomatic patient (potential to spread without knowing) continues being a concern.

Dataset of the adapted COVID stress scales for healthcare professionals of the northeast region of Mexico

“…There were 5 categories (0, 1, 2, 3, 4) and 4 different results (absent, mild, moderate, and severe) with 6 questions per section, as seen in our manuscript supplemental Table 8 [3] . In order to define the category per each section, we added the total number of points.…”

“…We based our study on the application of the adapted CSS. We began by regionalizing the original CSS to the Spanish-speaking healthcare professional community in Mexico [3] . We based the design on the original 36-item questionnaire CSS which is used to measure stress levels and anxiety symptoms in daily life [2] .…”

“…The dataset provided relates to the adapted COVID Stress Scales (CSS) for healthcare professionals [3] and is available at https://www.kaggle.com/chepox/css-mexico . There are 2 datasets involved: raw and re-categorized/processed data.…”

Clinical Applications of Machine Learning on Covid-19: The Use of a Decision Tree Algorithm for the Assessment of Perceived Stress in Mexican Healthcare Professionals

“…This work is based on previously reported adapted COVID-19 stress scales data 1 . The analysis method was adapted from CRISP-DM, in the same amount of stages and sequence, as shown in Figure 4.…”

“…As the deadly coronavirus disease COVID-19 continues to spread globally medical and allied healthcare professionals have become one of the most highly affected sectors by this disease 1–3 . Particularly in developing democracies, such is the case of Mexico, the public health system has become engulfed by the overwhelming levels of stress 4,5 In addition, the situation becomes even more taxing for attending personnel as they not only deal with the burdened system 6 , but they must also deal with the enemy upfront; It is here, where they too can become prey to the disease 7 .…”