Comparison of the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Self-Employed Private Healthcare Workers with Respect to Employed Public Healthcare Workers: Three-Wave Study during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain.

(1) Background: Coronavirus disease, also called COVID-19, is a worldwide pandemic with a major impact on all aspects of the individual (health status, psychological, and economic aspects, among others). The perception of health professionals in this situation has been influenced by their economic and psychosocial situations. On the economic level, self-employed workers have no state subsidies, with the added disadvantage of not having sufficient means to cope with contagion. This could potentially have an impact on their health and indirectly on their family members, creating additional stress. The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences in the level of anxiety of health professionals working in private practice compared to healthcare workers working in public institutions during the first three waves of COVID-19. (2) Methods: A cohort study on 517 subjects comparing anxiety between a group of health workers and a group of health professionals working in the public sector at three key moments during the pandemic was performed. (3) Results: Statistically significant differences were found between self-employed private health professionals compared to those working as public health workers. The perception of impact was worse in the self-employed; however, a higher level of anxiety was evident in public employees in all assessed domains (cognitive, physiological, and motor, p = 0.001). (4) Conclusions: There were significant changes when comparing the first phase between both groups; employed public healthcare workers manifested a sense of lower risk of COVID-19 contagion than privately employed professionals, who had a higher level of anxiety. In the second and third waves, negative feelings improved for both groups, and the fear of showing anxiety to the patient decreased over the course of the waves.

Assessment of the Anxiety Level of Andalusian Podiatrists during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Increase Phase.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-CoV-2 and represents the causative agent of a potentially fatal disease that is of great global public health concern. COVID-19 is a respiratory disease produced by the coronavirus family. The World Health Organization declared the disease a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Podiatrists are in a peculiar situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic: that of a health professional aspect and the singularity that most of them practise as self-employed workers. The aim of the study is to evaluate in a group of podiatrists, working at a national level, their knowledge, perception and degree of anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic via the use of a questionnaire specifically developed to this end in the initial phase of the pandemic. We employed a transversal descriptive study with 302 participants, with a purposive sampling technique. The degree of perception and knowledge of the podiatrists about COVID-19 was analysed as well as the cognitive impact of the situation of confinement. The results showed that the podiatrists perceive this situation as serious at the economic and health level, that they have a thorough knowledge of the disease and that they are in a moderate to severe percentile of anxiety. Additionally, 76.2% cancelled their usual work. The COVID-19 pandemic is negatively perceived by this group of podiatrists at the personal, professional, health and economic level, with even a state of anxiety being produced.