The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of health care workers

Background: this study investigated the impact of cOViD-19 on professional (hcWs) health care workers' mental health and the prevalence of depression, anxiety, fear and stress related to their workload. METHOD(S): This is a cross-sectional survey including 1,554 male and female participants aged 20-65 years in Turkey who completed the 21-item Depression, anxiety, stress scale (Dass-21), Burnout and Fear of cOViD-19 scale (FcV-19s). Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed. RESULT(S): Significant differences were found between two groups defined as HCWs-frontline and non-frontline, in the following characteristics: (P=0.013), gender (P<0.001), education (P<0.001), occupational status (P<.001), income (P=0.003), working-years experience (P<0.001), number hospital rooms assigned (P=0.024), number of persons living with (P=0.024), and smoking habits (P=0.018). The findings showed that the prevalence of depression anxiety and stress was significantly higher among the frontline workers when compared to non-frontline ones (all P<=0.018). They also reported significantly higher scores of fear of COVID-19 for all items (P<0.001). The mean scores of burnout items were significantly higher among frontline-HCWs as well as all items regarding the COVID-19 (P<0.001). The multivariate stepwise regression analysis confirmed Predictors for depression were: feeling the burnout (physical / mental exhaustion), feeling emotionally exhausted from work, clammy hand, number of years of work experience, fear of family members catching infection, can't sleep because the risk of getting cOViD-19. Meanwhile, hardworking, number of years at work, feeling depressed and burnout (physical / mental exhaustion) form current COVID-19 work, were all considered main risk factors for anxiety. CONCLUSION(S): The findings of this study determined that fear and burnout related COVID-19 were significantly associated with high scores of depression, anxiety, and stress among frontline-hcWs, which requires immediate action and support. Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA.

The Relationship between Gender Role, Job Role, and Risk and Protective Factors for Posttraumatic Stress Symptomatology among Healthcare Workers during the First Wave of COVID-19

Background: The emotional experiences of healthcare workers during the first wave of COVID-19 warrant further investigation especially regarding gender differences. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between gender role, job role and risk and protective factors for the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Methods: A total of 521 healthcare workers completed the survey during the first pandemic wave. Psychosocial Index (PSI) was used to assess stress, well-being, distress, illness behaviour, and quality of life;the distress caused by stressful events was evaluated with the Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R) and resilience was measured with the Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD RISC). Results: Associations were found between female gender and distress with and without sleep disturbance (p<0.0001). Assessment of PTSD symptoms showed significance on symptoms of avoidance (p=0.0006), intrusiveness of thought (p=0.0016), and hyperarousal (p=0.003) to the disadvantage of female compared to male. Nurses emerged as the most vulnerable professional role about distress (p<0.0001), sleep disturbance (p<0.0001), and abnormal illness behaviors (p<0.0001). Finally, the study of post-traumatic symptomatology showed significance for avoidance (p=0.0072), intrusive thinking (p=0.0071), and hyperarousal (p=0.0019) to the disadvantage of the medical and nursing role in the female gender compared to the medical and nursing role in the male gender and other professional role in the female gender. Conclusions: Such findings suggest, there are differences in gender, rather than professional role and resilience factor, in emotional management in a particularly stressful condition, such as that of the first pandemic wave © 2022. by the Author(s);licensee Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, Messina, Italy. This article is an open access article, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License

Relationship between family history of alcohol problems and different clusters of depressive symptoms.

OBJECTIVES: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a multifactorial syndrome with significant interactions between genetic and environmental factors. This study specifically investigates the association between family history of alcohol problems (FHAP) and family history of depression (FHD), and how these relate to different clusters of depressive symptoms. METHODS: Correlations between FHAP and FHD and different clusters of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were studied. We sampled 333 employees from a general hospital who had been receiving a psychiatric consultation between 2005 and 2012. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models were conducted to explore these correlations. RESULTS: There was a significant positive correlation between FHAP and BDI affective score. This result remained significant even after the adjustment for other variables considered as important factors for MDD, such as gender, age, marital status, education, ethnic group and FHD. More specifically, FHAP was correlated with dissatisfaction and episodes of crying among the affective symptoms. FHAP showed no statistical difference in any of the other clusters score or in the BDI total score. Moreover, as expected, we found a correlation between FHD and BDI total score and Somatic and Cognitive clusters. CONCLUSION: FHAP should be routinely investigated in individuals presenting with depressive symptoms. This is especially important in cases presenting with dissatisfaction and episodes of crying in patients who do not endorse criteria for MDD. Due to study limitations, the findings require replication by neurobiological, epidemiological and clinical studies.

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Fear of COVID-19 scale in Paraguayan population.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to test the psychometric properties of the Spanish validation of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) in a Paraguayan population. METHODS: Participants were recruited through an Internet-based survey. All participants whose scores in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and The Fear Questionnaire (FQ) were greater than zero were included. 1245 subjects responded voluntarily: 1077 subjects, scoring >0, were considered. RESULTS: To establish construct validity of the FCV-19S, an exploratory factor analysis was performed using the KMO test, which was adequate, and the Bartlett sphericity test, which was significant (p <.0001). The CFI, NFI, GFI, TLI and RMSEA indices were used to evaluate the model and showed good adjustment. Cronbach's α showed valid internal consistency (α = 0.86). This validation was supported by significant correlation (p <.001) with the HADS scale for anxiety and depression and with the FQ scale for specific phobia. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish version of the FCV-19S is a 7-item scale with two dimensions, psychological symptoms and physiological symptoms, which demonstrated robust psychometric properties in a Paraguayan population.