High prevalence of mental disorder symptoms among medical and other health specialties residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic put healthcare professionals, including residents (postgraduate trainees of health professions), under intense physical and psychological stress, hence at risk for mental disorders. We evaluated the prevalence of mental disorders among healthcare residents during the pandemic. METHODS: From July to September 2020, residents in medicine and other healthcare specialties in Brazil were recruited. The participants completed electronic forms with validated questionnaires (DASS-21, PHQ-9, BRCS) to screen for depression, anxiety, and stress, and to evaluate resilience. Data on potential predisposing factors for mental disorders were also collected. Descriptive statistics, chi-squared, students t, correlation and logistic regression models were applied. The study received ethical approval, and all participants provided informed consent. RESULTS: We included 1313 participants (51.3% medical; 48.7% nonmedical) from 135 Brazilian hospitals; mean (SD) age: 27.8 (4.4) years; 78.2% females; 59.3% white race. Of all participants, 51.3%, 53.4% and 52.6% presented symptoms consistent with depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively; 61.9% showed low resilience. Nonmedical residents exhibited higher anxiety compared to medical residents (DASS-21 anxiety score, mean difference: 2.26; 95% CI: 1.15-3.37; p < 0.001). In multivariate analyses, having any pre-existent, nonpsychiatric chronic disease was associated with higher prevalence of symptoms indicative of depression (odds ratio, OR: 2.05; 95% CI: 1.47-2.85, on DASS-21 | OR: 2.26; 95% CI: 1.59-3.20, on PHQ-9), anxiety (OR: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.51-2.83, on DASS-21), and stress (OR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.12-2.09, on DASS-21); other predisposing factors were identified; by contrast, high resilience (BRCS score) was protective against symptoms of depression (OR 0.82; 95% CI: 0.79-0.85, on DASS-21 | OR 0.85; 95% CI: 0.82-0.88, on PHQ-9), anxiety (OR 0.90; 95% CI: 0.87-0.93, on DASS-21), and stress (OR 0.88; 95% CI: 0.85-0.91, on DASS-21); p < 0.05 for all outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: We found a high prevalence of mental disorder symptoms among healthcare residents during COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Nonmedical residents exhibited higher levels of anxiety than medical ones. Some predisposing factors for depression, anxiety and stress among residents were identified.

High prevalence of burnout syndrome among medical and nonmedical residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, health professionals have been working under extreme conditions, increasing the risk of physical and mental illness. We evaluated the prevalence of burnout and its associated factors among postgraduate student residents in health professions during the global health crisis. METHODS: Healthcare residents were recruited from all across Brazil between July and September 2020 through digital forms containing instruments for assessing burnout (Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI)), resilience (brief resilient coping scale (BRCS)) and anxiety, stress and depression (depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)). Additionally, the relationships between burnout and chronic diseases, autonomy and educational adequacy in the residency programme, personal protective equipment (PPE), workload and care for patients with COVID-19 were evaluated. The chi-square test, Student's t test, Pearson's correlation test and logistic regression were performed. RESULTS: A total of 1,313 participants were included: mean (standard deviation) age, 27.8 (4.4) years; female gender, 78.1%; white race, 59.3%; and physicians, 51.3%. The overall prevalence of burnout was 33.4%. The odds (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]) of burnout were higher in the presence of pre-existing diseases (1.76 [1.26-2.47]) and weekly work > 60 h (1.36 [1.03-1.79]) and were lower in the presence of high resilience (0.84 [0.81-0.88]), autonomy (0.87 [0.81-0.93]), and educational structure (0.77 [0.73-0.82]), adequate availability of PPE (0.72 [0.63-0.83]) and non-white race (0.63 [0.47-0.83]). Burnout was correlated with anxiety (r = 0.47; p < 0.05), stress (r: 0.58; p < 0.05) and depression (r: 0.65; p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We observed a high prevalence of burnout among residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Individual characteristics and conditions related to the work environment were associated with a higher or lower occurrence of the syndrome.

Avaliação da qualidade do sono em estudantes de Medicina / Assessing quality of sleep in medical students

Os estudantes de Medicina compõem um grupo susceptível aos transtornos do sono, em razão da carga curricular em horário integral, das atividades extracurriculares e da forte pressão e estresse, com exigência de alto rendimento e tempo demandado em estudos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar os hábitos do sono dos estudantes da graduação e residentes da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal de Goiás, a fim de identificar os principais fatores que afetam a qualidade do sono. Foram analisados 276 estudantes, sendo 234 (84,7 por cento) acadêmicos e 42 (18,2 por cento) residentes. Aplicou-se o questionário Índice de Qualidade do sono de Pittsburg (PSQI) e a escala de sonolência de Epworth. A análise dos questionários revelou associação estatisticamente significante entre sonolência e qualidade do sono (RR:1,108; IC 95 por cento 1,0047 - 1,2240). O trabalho demonstrou que estudantes com sonolência diurna excessiva apresentam pior qualidade de sono; e uma variação significativa da prevalência da sonolência diurna excessiva e da qualidade ruim do sono entre as amostras de primeiro ano de graduação e residentes.

As a group, medical students are particularly susceptible to sleep disorders, due to their full-time course load, extracurricular activities, and heavy pressure and stress, with the demand for high yield and extensive study time. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sleeping habits of medical students and residents at the School of Medicine, Federal University in Goiás, in order to identify the principal factors that affect quality of sleep. The study analyzed a sample of 276 individuals, including 234 (84.7 percent) undergraduate medical students and 42 (18.2 percent) residents. The study used the questionnaire for the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Analysis of the questionnaires showed a statistically significant association between sleepiness and quality of sleep (RR: 1.108; 95 percentCI 1.0047 - 1.2240). The study showed that students with excessive daytime sleepiness present worse quality of sleep, and that there was a significant variation in the prevalence of excessive daytime sleepiness and poor quality of sleep when comparing first year undergraduates and residents.