Psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on anaesthetists in an academic institution in South Africa
South. Afr. j. anaesth. analg. (Online)
;
29(3): 107-112, 2023. tables
Article
in English
| AIM
| ID: biblio-1436964
ABSTRACT
Background:
Anaesthesiology is considered to be a medical speciality that can result in high levels of stress. The COVID-19 pandemic required anaesthetists to rapidly adopt additional challenging roles. This study describes the psychological impact of the pandemic on anaesthetists and identified and compared factors associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Methods:
A cross-sectional study design was used. An anonymous questionnaire was used to collect data utilising convenience sampling and results were reported using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis. The order of importance for the sources of stress and organisational support was determined by calculating the median rank.Results:
The majority of the participants were between ages 3140 (62.6%), male (59.8%), registrars (47.6%), had no comorbidities (73.8%), and had no known mental illness (79.9%). Having a previous diagnosis of a mental health illness was linked with greater levels of depression (OR [95% CI] = 4.50 [2.0210.24], p < 0.001), anxiety(OR [95% CI] = 3.9 [1.79.0], p = 0.001), stress (OR [95% CI] = 3.8 [1.69.2], p = 0.002), and PTSD (OR [95% CI] = 5.4 [2.213.5], p < 0.001). Sources of stress identified included insecure access to appropriate personal protective equipment, being exposed to COVID-19 at work, and taking the infection home to family.Conclusion:
Participants with a history of mental illness were predisposed to developing negative psychological symptoms as a result of the pandemic. The main source of stress identified was insecure access to appropriate personal protective equipment.Subject(s)
Full text:
Available
Index:
AIM (Africa)
Main subject:
Psychology
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
/
Mental Disorders
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Risk factors
Language:
English
Journal:
South. Afr. j. anaesth. analg. (Online)
Year:
2023
Type:
Article
Institution/Affiliation country:
Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa/ZA
/
Department of Anaesthesiology, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa/ZA
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