ABSTRACT
Background: The impact of COVID-19 on mental health has been continuously reported, especially among healthcare workers. In the literature, anxiety and depressive symptoms are not uncommon in infected individuals. However, there is little data on these psychological events in healthcare professionals. Objective(s): To determine the prevalence and associated factors of anxiety and depressive symptoms in healthcare workers infected by COVID-19. Method(s): This is a cross-sectional study conducted among healthcare workers at Farhat Hached University Hospital infected by COVID 19. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on the socio-professional and medical characteristics of the participants. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD-S). Result(s): A total of 477 confirmed COVID-19 in healthcare workers were included in this study (85.9%). The mean age of the participants was 39.9 +/-10.8 years. Women represented 78.2%. The majority of the infected participants were nurses (32.1%). The paucisymptomatic form of the disease was the most frequent (73.8%). After returning to work, 62.7% of the participants retained residual symptoms and 15.5% experienced stigma reactions from their colleagues. The overall prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms were 25.4% and 19.1%, respectively. These identified problems were significantly interrelated. Furthermore, residual symptoms and duration of confinement predicted anxiety symptomatology, while female gender and symptomatic clinical form of COVID-19 were significantly associated with depressive symptomatology. Conclusion(s): The psychological events of COVID-19 are frequent among healthcare workers. Thus, systematic screening and early management of psychological disorders are necessary to preserve the human resources of the health sector.