Sustained poor mental health among healthcare workers in COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal analysis of the four-wave panel survey over 8 months in Japan

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to compare the longitudinal change of the psychological distress of healthcare workers (HCWs) with non‐HCWs during the repeated outbreaks of the COVID‐19 in Japan. Methods The data were retrieved from the Employee Cohort Study in the Covid‐19 pandemic in Japan study. An online survey was conducted on March 2020 (T1), on May 2020 (T2), on August 2020 (T3), and on November 2020 (T4). Psychological distress was measured by the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire. A mixed‐model repeated‐measures ANOVA was conducted as an indicator of the group differences. Results A total sample of analysis was n = 996 (HCWs, n = 111; non‐HCWs, n = 885). HCWs consisted of physicians/nurses/midwives and other HCWs (eg, pharmacists, clinical laboratory technicians) in the clinical settings (n = 19; 17% and n = 61; 55%, respectively), and HCWs not working in the clinical settings (n = 31; 28%). Being HCWs were associated with a significant increase in psychological distress from T1 to T2, T3 and T4 ( P = .001, P = .002, P < .001; respectively). Conclusions The mental health of HCWs deteriorated through the COVID‐19 outbreaks compared with non‐HCWs. HCWs are continuously the important targets to provide mental health support.

Quality of Life, Sleep Quality, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Eating Habits, and Social Bounds in Nurses during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in Qatar (The PROTECTOR Study): A Cross-Sectional, Comparative Study

“…Several longitudinal studies confirmed the impact of COVID-19 on the physical, mental, spiritual, and social aspects of nurses' lives [25][26][27][28][29].…”

“…Furthermore, they should enhance the working conditions of nurses by resource allocation and increased manpower. It is also recommended that they encourage their families and friends to boost the social support provided to nurses during high-risk periods such as pandemics, to enhance QOL in social relationships and minimize or prevent the adverse effects of stress [9,[28][29][30][31][32].…”

“…Each item has four possible answers (never = 0, sometimes = 1, generally = 2, and always = 3). Total scores are then classified into four groups: non-emotional eater (0-5), low emotional eater (6-10), emotional eater (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), and very emotional eater (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). To analyze factor structure and psychometric properties of Emotional Eater Questionnaire (EEQ), the authors recruited 295 participants, and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was carried out by using the Unweight Least Squares (ULS) method [41].…”

Health Impact and Psychosocial Perceptions among French Medical Residents during the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Collective support and a sense of work were now known to have been a preventive factor against the mental health burden during the crisis [2,26,28]. For the long-term impact, in a cohort study performed in Japan where follow-ups were conducted four times in 2020, the authors found that being an HCW was associated with increased psychological distress at each time of the follow-up [29].…”

Prolonged Stress Causes Depression in Frontline Workers Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study in a COVID-19 Hub-Hospital in Central Italy

“…For example, Sasaki et al performed a prospective online cohort study of a population of 4120 full-time employees, measuring psychological distress in the last 30 days by the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire. The two-months longitudinal study recruited a mixed population of 996 people, 111 of whom were HCWs [ 21 ]; the participation dropped to 83 HCWs vs 863 controls in the eighth month [ 22 ]; on both occasions the HCWs had a higher mean stress score than the controls. Several research groups have observed that stress and anxiety levels tend to decrease in the transition between the attack and the stationary phase of the pandemic.…”