Objectives: COVID-19 has been recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and physicians are at the frontline to confront the disease. Burnout syndrome (BOS) is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. The objective of this study is to evaluate the frequency and associated risk factors of BOS among a sample of Egyptian physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: Using Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey, a cross-sectional electronic survey was conducted to assess BOS among the target group.Results: Two hundred and twenty physicians participated in the study. The frequency of BOS among the research group was 36.36%. The possibility of development of BOS increased two times with the need to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) from participants' own money, with harassment by patients' families, and was less likely to develop in doctors with older age. While male gender was a predictor of depersonalization (DP), female gender showed a significant association with higher emotional exhaustion (EE). Infection or death from COVID-19 among colleagues or relatives showed significant association with elevated EE and lowered personal achievement (PA), respectively.Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic added new factors to the development of BOS in our research group. Several measures should be taken to support physicians at this stage. These measures include psychological support, organizing work hours, adjusting salaries, and providing personal protective equipment and training on safety measures.
Objectives
COVID-19 is a multisystem disease, and some patients suffer from physical or psychological symptoms for weeks or even months after infection, which is described as post-COVID syndrome. The goal of this study is evaluating the prevalence of post-COVID-19 symptoms among Egyptian patients and detecting the factors associated with the presence of these symptoms.
Methods
An on-line cross-sectional survey using Google Forms was used to conduct the present study, which took place between June and August 2021.
Results
Three hundred and ninety-six participants filled in the survey. The mean age of participants was 41.4 years. Most participants had mild to moderate COVID-19 (81.31%). The prevalence of post-COVID-19 symptoms was 87.63%, where the most frequent symptom was fatigue (60.86%). Female sex, the presence of comorbidities, lower degree of education, longer disease duration, as well as severe and critical forms of the disease were significantly associated with the presence of post-COVID symptoms. Using regression analysis, the predictors of post-COVID symptoms were severe and critical forms of the disease and intake of antibiotics and corticosteroids for treatment of COVID-19.
Conclusions
COVID-19 is followed by high prevalence of post-COVID symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report the relationship between the use of antibiotics and the development of post-COVID symptoms. We recommend further studies to understand this relationship. We also recommend restricting the use of these drugs to indicated cases according to the international guidelines. More studies are needed to gain better understanding of post-COVID symptoms especially in females.
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