Stress levels of healthcare workers in the COVID -19 pandemic in relation to gender roles: Is the problem limited to the work?

ABSTRACT

Objective: In addition to many medical consequences, COVID-19 pandemic has also caused some social changes especially for healthcare workers working in the front lines of the pandemic. However, this has not affected everyone equally and gender roles became a determinant especially in domestic life. Method: In this cross-sectional study with a sample of 670 healthcare workers in Turkey;a sociodemographic data form, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and Gender Roles Attitude Scale (GRAS) were applied to examine stress levels and their relationship with gender roles. Results: Mean PSS scores were significantly higher in women (27.03) healthcare workers than men (23.14) Women who did all or most of the housework on their own were almost three times the men (67.2% vs 22.9%) and this increased stress levels of women. In the GRAS, female participants had higher scores (173.2) than male participants (161.8);which means they were more egalitarian, and academic degree or job did not affect GRAS. Discussion: Besides many challenges related with working in pandemic period;women healthcare workers face additional distress because of the gender roles. Analyzing the effects of the pandemic without gender dimensions may be insufficient to fully understand the public health aspect of the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Turkish) Amac Covid-19 Pandemisi, ozellikle on safhada gorev alan saglik calisanlari uzerinde bircok tibbi etkinin yaninda, bazi sosyal degisimlere de neden olmustur. Ancak bu durum herkesi esit olarak etkilememekte, toplumsal cinsiyet rolleri ozellikle ev yasaminda etkili olmaktadir. Yontem Turkiye'den 670 saglik calisani ile yapilan bu kesitsel calismada, sosyodemografik veri formu, Algilanan Stres Olcegi (ASO) ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Rolleri Tutum Olcegi (TCRTO) uygulanmistir. BulgularOrtalama ASO skorlari kadin saglik calisanlarinda (27,03) erkeklere (23,14) oranla anlamli olarak yuksek bulundu. Tum ev isini tek basina yaptigini soyleyen kadinlarin orani erkeklerin uc kati idi (67.2%/ 22.9%) ve bu durum kadinlarin stres duzeyini yukseltiyordu. TCRTO'de kadinlar (173,2), daha esitlikci tutumu gosterecek sekilde erkeklerden (161,8) daha yuksek puan aldilar. Is kolu ya da akademik duzeyin cinsiyet rolleri uzerinde etkili olmadigi bulundu. Sonuc Pandemi kosullarinda calismanin getirdigi bircok zorlugun yani sira, kadin saglik calisanlari cinsiyet rolleri nedeniyle daha fazla stres duzeyine sahiptir. Pandeminin getirdigi halk sagligi sorunlarini tam olarak anlayabilmek icin cinsiyet rollerinin de hesaba katilmasi gerekmektedir. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)