Study of Relationship between Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 lockdown and Resilience among Physiotherapists

ABSTRACT

Background • Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and lockdown has caused negative impact on mental health status of health care workers including the physiotherapists as physiotherapists are also involved in the care of patients with COVID-19 infection. • Taking care of COVID-19 infected patients can be exhaustive both physically and mentally due to involved risk of contracting the disease which may prove fatal for some. • Due to ongoing lockdown many physiotherapists are not able to work either fully or partially as per their potential. So, physiotherapists like other health care workers are not immune to mental health impacts of COVID-19 lockdown. Aim • To assess relationship between psychological impact of COVID-19 in the form of anxiety and depression, and the resilience among physiotherapists. Methods • Data were collected from total 378 physiotherapists. • Beck's depression inventory (BDI), generalized anxiety disorder 7 item (GAD-7) scale, and brief resilience scale (BRS) were used to assess depression, anxiety, and resilience respectively among the study participants. • Data were analyzed by using SPSS 15 and, Chi-sqaure, Fisher exact, and Person's correlation tests. Results • Prevalence of anxiety and depression were 37.8% and 31% respectively. • As regards the resilience, 2.9% had high, 74.3% had normal, and 22.8% had low resilience levels. • Physiotherapists who had high level of resilience had lower rates of anxiety on GAD-7 and lower rates of depression on BDI. Conclusion • Strengthening the resilience of physiotherapists can promote their mental health in longer run in face of stressful event like COVID-19 lockdown. • So, resilience strengthening programs must be the priority.