Stress, Sleep and Psychological Impact in Healthcare Workers During the Early Phase of COVID-19 in India: A Factor Analysis

Abstract

Background: Risks to healthcare workers have escalated during the pandemic and they are likely to experience a greater level of stress. This cross-sectional study investigated mental distress among healthcare workers during the early phase of Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in India.Method: 140 healthcare workers of a tertiary care hospital in India were assessed for perceived stress and insomnia. A factor analysis with principal component method reduced these questions to four components which were categorized as insomnia, stress-related anxiety, stress-related irritability, and stress-related hopelessness. Further statistical analyses were done on these factor scores to identify the predictors and investigate the differences between the different categories of healthcare workers.Result: Doctors had the highest level of anxiety among the healthcare workers. Both doctors and nurses perceived a greater level of irritability than the other HCWs. Compared to doctors and nurses, other HCWs were more likely to experience insomnia. Lower age, higher education, female gender, and urban habitat were associated with greater perception of anxiety. Older age, being quarantined, and single marital status were the significant predictors of irritability. Female gender, single marital-status, and higher number of medical ailments contributed to perceived hopelessness. Quarantine significantly predicted insomnia.Conclusion: Different categories of healthcare workers are experiencing varied mental health problems owing to their heterogeneous socio-demographic backgrounds. Tailored and personalized care, as well as policies, might help in alleviating their problems. Further research is warranted to explore the psychological distress and remedies among these frontline workers during and after the ongoing pandemic crisis.

Challenges Faced by Healthcare Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Inquiry From Bangladesh

“…Besides, healthcare professionals from different age, gender, and socioeconomic background suffer from different psychological issues. A specialized set of interventions are required for healthcare professionals depending on their mental health condition ( 45 ). Although the National Health Policy of Bangladesh (2011) promises an adequate supply of logistics and manpower in government healthcare facilities, and coordination between different healthcare services-related departments ( 46 ), the reality is different.…”

The global prevalence of depression, anxiety, stress, and, insomnia and its changes among health professionals during COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The reverse scenarios (lowest estimates) were found for depression and anxiety in South Korea, for stress in Ghana, and for insomnia in Greece [28] (Table 3). The psychological tools that measured the highest pooled prevalence of depression of 47.02% using 9 studies [2,31,46,53,57,65,85,87,90], anxiety of 58.06% using 9 studies [2,31,46,53,57,65,85,87,90], stress of 69.46% using 5 studies [24,69,86,100,103], and insomnia of 46.58% using 16 studies [8,24,27,32,33,50,53,54,56,60,86,88,90,91,95] were HADS, HADS, PSS and ISI respectively. On the contrary, HAMD, SAS, PTSD, and PSQI tools were used to measure the lowest pooled prevalence of depression of 20.10% using one studies [49], anxiety of 19.39% using 8 studies [45,55,61,71,…”

“…the characteristics of the selected studies[2,8,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68, 69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90, 91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104], 30 of which were from China, 6 from Italy, 6 from India, 4 from the United States, 3 from each of Pakistan and Iran, 2 from…”

Prioritizing the Mental Health and Well-Being of Healthcare Workers: An Urgent Global Public Health Priority

“…Both doctors and nurses perceived a greater level of overload related irritability than the other healthcare workers. Compared to doctors and nurses, other healthcare workers were more likely to experience insomnia (59).…”