Burnout in Pharmacy professionals during COVID-19 outbreak.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant global impact on the economic, social, and public health sectors. The most severe consequences were felt firsthand in health systems and by their professionals, exposing them to greater physical and mental health risks, which need to be properly evaluated.  This study aims to assess burnout levels in pharmacy professionals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We collected data (N = 250), from pharmacy professionals (mean age of 34.24 years) (SD=8.99) who worked in different areas during the pandemic period using the Burnout Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). RESULTS: There was an increase in weekly working hours after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a decrease in the number of rest days per month. Most participants believe that their health status after the start of the pandemic is a little worse (44.4%). According to the CBI, the dimension with the highest average value of the Burnout subscale is related to the customer/user dimension (53.07), followed by the Work (44.60) and Personal (44.22) dimension. CONCLUSIONS: The levels of Burnout of pharmacy professionals are more accentuated in the Burnout dimension related to the client/user and the average values ​​of the various Burnout subscales are higher in Pharmacy Technicians than in Pharmacists.

Opinions and options about COVID-19: Personality correlates and sex differences in two European countries.

In the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we collected data (N = 1,420) from Portugal and Spain in relation to personality (i.e., Dark Triad traits, Big Five traits, religiousness, and negative affect) and attitudes related to COVID-19 about its origins, opinions on how to deal with it, and fear of it. The most pervasive patterns we found were: (1) neurotic-type dispositions were associated with stronger opinions about the origins of the virus and leave people to have more fear of the virus but also more trust in tested establishments to provide help. (2): religious people were less trusting of science, thought prayer was answer, and attributed the existence of the virus to an act of God. We also found that sex differences and country differences in attitudes towards COVID-19 were mediate by sex/country differences in personality traits like emotional stability, religiousness, and negative affect. For instance, women reported more fear of COVID-19 than men did, and this was verified by women's greater tendency to have negative affect and low emotional stability relative to men. Results point to the central role of neuroticism in accounting for variance in broad-spectrum attitudes towards COVID-19.

COVID-19 and their outcomes: how personality, place, and sex of people play a role in the psychology of COVID-19 beliefs

Background There is considerable variation in people's attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic. One way to understand why people differ in their attitudes is to examine how personality traits predict the degree to which people hold different attitudes. Methods We collected data (N = 1420) from Portugal and Spain using Facebook advertising. We measured the Dark Triad and Big Five traits, and negative affect, along with ad hoc items for religiousness, and attitudes towards and fear of COVID. Results Neuroticism and Negative affect was linked to various domains of insecurity or fear and provides insights into how personality predicts concerns and behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Religious people were less trusting in science, thought prayer was answer, and attributed the existence of the virus to an act of God. Women reported more fear of COVID-19 than men did, and this was enabled by women's greater tendency to have Negative Affect and higher Neuroticism than men. Conclusions Neurotic people and those with more Negative Affect appear to be more fearful, more trusting in others and systems likely to protect them (e.g. scientists), and less likely to trust in systems shown to not help them (e.g. prayer). We found other effects for the Dark Triad traits and the Big Five traits. In total, we highlight some of the reasons that people may be in such disagreements about what to do about the virus at the individual and institutional levels. Personality, place, and participant's sex all appear to play a role in the psychology of COVID-19 beliefs.