Psychosocial Morbidity Among Doctors Working in Intensive Care Unit in Tertiary Care Hospitals in Chennai - A Cross Sectional Study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Intensivists routinely works in a demanding, highly complicated environment where mor-tality and morbidity are common events and it affects their own physical as well mental health. Objective: The aim was to assess psychological factors and the various influencing factors on psycholog-ical health among study participants. Methods: The list of tertiary care hospitals in Chennai were collected and Ten hospitals were selected randomly by lottery method and 15 doctors who were working in Intensive Care Units (ICU) were se-lected from each hospital by systematic random sampling to arrive at the calculated sample size of 150. The Data was collected using the Pretested semi structured questionnaire and validated DASS-21 Scale. Results: The prevalence of Depression, Anxiety and Stress was found to be 78.6%, 86% and 60.6% re-spectively among ICU doctors. It was found that, having a history of either diabetes or hypertension and working more than 8 hours per day was an important predictor for depression and stress respectively with statistically significant association (P<0.05). Conclusions: Routine screening of physical health and mental health for doctors involved in the diag-nostic as well as treatment aspects of work towards patients in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) should be con-ducted periodically.