Perceived stress among physician parents during COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Stress among physician parents is still poorly studied, especially during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. Objective(s) To describe the stress of being both a doctor and a parent during COVID-19 epidemic. Method(s) It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, carried out on google drive in March 2021, and relating to 93 Tunisian medical parents. We used a questionnaire containing the parents' personal and professional data as well as the perceived stress scale (PSS10). Result(s) The majority of parents (94.7%) were women. The average age was 34.43 years old. The average age of marriage was 29.6 years for men and 25.4 years for women. The majority of parents (89.4%) had one or two children and 70.2% were satisfied with their relationship with their children. On another side, 71.3% of doctors had to provide on duty services in the hospital, with 44.1% providing 3-4 on-calls per month, while 69% were providing on duty services in the COVID units. The average PSS score was 22.6. The distribution of scores indicated medium and high stress level in respectively 84.9% and 14% of parents. Furthermore, the PSS score was negatively correlated with the marriage age (p=0.046, r=-0.2). On the other hand, no association was observed with the children number nor with the satisfaction of the relationship with his child. Conclusion(s) It follows from our study that stress among physician parents is at a fairlyhighlevel. Managing this stress during a pandemic is not easy and requires the activation of several defense mechanisms.