Psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia: an online cross-sectional study to identify the need for equal attention of intervention

Ambelu, Argaw; Birhanu, Zewdie; Yitayih, Yimenu; Kebede, Yohannes; Mecha, Mohammed; Abafita, Jemal; Belay, Ashenafi; Fufa, Diriba

doi:10.1186/s12991-021-00344-4

Cited by 24 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Healthcare workers face several challenges in treating patients with COVID-19: reducing the spread of infection; developing suitable short-term strategies; and formulating long-term plans. 13 The overall prevalence of psychological distress among healthcare workers in this study was 28.9% which underscores the grave situation that more than one in four healthcare workers have psychological distress. This finding was similar to the study conducted in Ethiopia (25.5%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…A low score indicates low levels of psychological distress and high scores indicate high levels of psychological distress. The final scores were categorized into four levels: "Likely to be well (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19))", "Likely to have the mild disorder (20-24)", Likely to have a moderate disorder (25-29), Likely to have a severe disorder (30-50). For further analytical purpose, "likely to have a mild disorder," "Likely to have a moderate disorder," "Likely to have severe disorder" were grouped as "Likely to have psychological distress' whereas "likely to be well" was categorized as "No psychological distress".…”

Section: Data Collection Tools and Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Psychological distress and its associated factors in health workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal: An online survey

Shrestha¹,

Gurung²,

Banstola³

et al. 2021

JGMC Nepal

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Introduction: Psychological distress among healthcare workers amidst COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a serious health problem. Understanding its magnitude is crucial to guide policies and interventions to improve their psychological wellbeing. This study assessed the psychological distress and its associated factors among health care workers in Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was carried out among 427 health workers currently working in Nepal from April 25 to June 10, 2020. Psychological distress was measured using “The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale” (K10). Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were computed at a 5% level of significance. Ethical approval was taken from Nepal Health Research Council. Results: A total of 427 healthcare workers participated in the study. Out of the total participants, 50.4% were males. Nearly half of the participants were medical doctors (48%) followed by nurses (22.2%), health assistants (12.2%) and 61% were non-government employees. The healthcare workers who experienced symptoms of psychological distress were 28.9%. Out of 123 respondents who had symptoms of psychological distress, 19% had mild, 7.3% had moderate and 2.6% had severe psychological distress. Female healthcare workers were more likely to have psychological distress than males [AOR: 1.75, CI: 1.05-2.92]. Conclusions: Psychological distress in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic is a matter of serious health concern. This issue demands urgent comprehensive intervention embracing the provision of a supportive environment and protective equipment, screening psychological outcomes and psychological counseling especially targeting female healthcare workers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Section: Data Collection Tools and Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological distress and its associated factors in health workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal: An online survey

Shrestha¹,

Gurung²,

Banstola³

et al. 2021

JGMC Nepal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Residing in Victoria was chosen as a predictor since the state of Victoria (compared to other Australian states) has experienced one of the strictest lockdowns in the world and we wanted to investigate whether such drastic measures (compared to more lenient guidelines) would contribute to higher levels of mental distress. Further, COVID-19 studies have demonstrated that older adults are less negatively affected in terms of mental health outcomes compared to younger adults (e.g., [ 6 , 7 , 77 ]) but it is unclear if this relationship exists in parents. In addition, past research demonstrated that higher epidemic risk perception was associated with higher distress (e.g., [ 61 , 63 ]) but the data for parents and those with chronic illness are largely lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental distress of parents with chronic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia: A prospective cohort study

Bik-Multanowska

Mikocka‐Walus

Fernando

et al. 2022

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

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Objective To-date there has been limited examination of the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in parents who suffer from chronic physical conditions. We aimed to 1) examine whether presence of a chronic disease predicts differential latent distress profile memberships, and 2) assess factors that could predict different distress profiles in the sub-group of parents with a chronic disease. Methods We used a sample of 1618 parents, from the longitudinal COVID-19 Pandemic Adjustment Study, who completed a measure of mental distress (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale) at 13 data collection points. Distress profiles were assessed with the latent profile analysis. Results We identified four distinct mental distress profile memberships, with the most common membership characterised by very low (48.1%), followed by low (31.9%), moderate (15.7%), and high (4.3%) distress scores. A higher proportion of parents with chronic diseases belonged to profiles experiencing low (34.7% vs. 30.4%), moderate (18.7% vs. 14.1%), and high (5.5% vs. 3.7%) compared to very low (41.2% vs. 51.8%) distress levels than other parents. Residing in Victoria, younger age, lower levels of social support and appraisal of COVID as risk were associated with membership to higher compared to very low distress profiles. Conclusion Our findings highlight the importance of considering chronic disease co-morbidity as an additive risk factor in addressing mental health outcomes of parents during pandemic-like events, since parents with chronic conditions are more vulnerable to experiencing worse mental distress. Future interventions should focus on ways to strengthen social support and provide guidance for managing threat appraisal.

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“…The unpredictable nature of the 2019-2020 Coronavirus pandemic has been shown to substantially increase the reported mental health disorders [1][2][3][4][5][6][7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impact of COVID-19 on mental health disorders has been demonstrated in large and worldwide cohort studies. The initial reports of the outbreak in the news and the social media platforms lead to a disturbing increase in anxiety due to psychological and physical stressors, fear of contracting the disease, concerns for financial consequences, life routine disruption, and more [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of anxiety level on decision to seek medical care of non-COVID cardiac patients during the pandemic outbreak—single-center experience in Israel

Koren¹,

Rajab²,

Barbour³

et al. 2022

Rev. Cardiovasc. Med.

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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has significantly the delivery of healthcare all around the world. In part, an abnormal and unexplained high non-COVID-related cardiovascular mortality rate was reported during the outbreak. We assess the correlation between anxiety level and decision to seek medical care (DSMC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: We recruited patients with cardiovascular complaints admitted to the emergency department in a single institute in Israel between February and September 2020. Anxiety level was measured using available questionnaires. DSMC was assessed with a newly designed questionnaire . Results: Two-hundreds seventy patients were included in the study. The mean age was 52.6 ± 14.9 (females represent 36.2%). 23.6% of the patients had at least moderate cardiovascular risk. High anxiety levels were (HAL) reported in nearly half of the patients (57.1% and 49.8% for General Anxiety Disorder Assessment [GAD-7] and Beck Anxiety Inventory [BAI], respectively). It was more prevalent in old, married, and unemployed patients (significant p-value for all in both questionnaires). Age was an independent factor (χ 2 = 6.33, p < 0.001, odds-ratio: 4.8) and had a positive correlation on anxiety level (r = 0.81, p < 0.001 and r = 0.62, p < 0.001, for GAD-7 and BAI, respectively). The DM-19 revealed a strong and positive correlation of seeking medical care with anxiety level (R 2 linear = 0.44, r = 0.70, p < 0.001 and R 2 linear = 0.30, r = 0.58, p < 0.001 for GAD-7 and BAI, respectively) and results in deferring medical care for several days than patient with low anxiety level (p = 0.02). Conclusions: We observed an abnormal prevalence of a high level of anxiety among non-COVID patients with cardiovascular complaints, which affected the patient's likelihood to seek medical care and resulted in an unreasonable postponement of medical treatment. Our results may explain cardiovascular mortality trends during the outbreak and should be considered in health crisis management. Future studies will involve multi-institutional efforts to address reproducibility of our findings across geographic regions in the state of the global impact. Additionally, it is imperative to understand the effects of the coronavirus vaccine on patient consideration to seek medical care.

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Psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia: an online cross-sectional study to identify the need for equal attention of intervention

Cited by 24 publications

References 23 publications

Psychological distress and its associated factors in health workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal: An online survey

Psychological distress and its associated factors in health workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal: An online survey

Mental distress of parents with chronic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia: A prospective cohort study

The impact of anxiety level on decision to seek medical care of non-COVID cardiac patients during the pandemic outbreak—single-center experience in Israel

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