Concerns, Perceived Impact, Preparedness in Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic and Health Outcomes among Italian Physicians: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Health care workers (HCWs) are among the professionals at serious risk for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health. In this sense, the next public health challenge globally will be to preserving healthy HCWs during this pandemic. Aim: The present study has the aim of investigating the relationship among concerns, perceived impact, preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic and the mental health of Italian physicians. Methods: From March 29th to April 15th 2020, we conducted an online survey using snowball sampling techniques through Limesurvey platform. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple binary logistic regressions. Results: Multivariate analysis showed that the risk factors for perceived job stress were concerns about catching COVID-19 (OR = 3.18 [95% CI = 2.00-5.05] P < .001), perceived impact on job demands (OR = 1.63 [95% CI = 1.05-2.52] P < .05), perceived impact on job role (OR = 2.50 [95% CI = 1.60-3.90] P < .001), and non-working concerns (OR = 1.86 [95% CI = 1.15-3.03] P < .05). With respect to the risk factors for rumination about the pandemic emerged concerns about catching COVID-19 (OR 1.74, [95% CI = 1.12-2.71] P < .05), perceived impact on job role (OR = 1.68 [95% CI = 1.12-2.52] P < .05), and impact on personal life (OR = 2.04 [95% CI = 1.08-3.86] P < .05). Finally, the risk factors for crying at work were perceived impact on job role (OR = 2.47, [95% CI = 1.20-5.09] P < .05), rumination about the pandemic (OR = 3.027 [95% CI = 1.27-7.19] P < .01), watching colleagues crying at work (OR = 3.82 [95% CI = 1.88-7.77] P < .01), and perceived job stress (OR = 3.53 [95% CI = 1.24-10.07] P < .05). Conclusion: In general, our results highlighted that being concerned about being infected/infecting other people, carrying out new and unusual tasks, and witnessing colleagues crying at work were important risk factors for physicians’ well-being. Additional data are necessary to advance understanding of these risk factors in a long-term perspective.

Identifying Psychosocial Risks and Protective Measures for Workers’ Mental Wellbeing at the Time of COVID-19: A Narrative Review

“…Moreover, supervisors' support helps employees in dealing with job uncertainties [31] and for essential workers, recognition of the value of their work plays a huge role [32][33][34]. In several studies, an association between lack of support and burnout syndrome has also been reported [32,[35][36][37][38][39]. Perceived organizational support moderated the relationship between the degree of exposure to risk and stress: the relationship appeared weaker when organizational support was perceived as high and the relationship was depicted as stronger when a low level of organizational support was present [38].…”

“…Workers with too few rest breaks had more anxiety as they were exhausted, had difficulty meeting their basic needs and were constantly exposed to workplace stressors [48,63,64]. Burnout symptoms were also associated with the increase in workload for healthcare and non-healthcare workers [36,39,65]. Also, the perception of workload is connected with the overall work environment and to mental workload [39,52].…”

“…Burnout symptoms were also associated with the increase in workload for healthcare and non-healthcare workers [36,39,65]. Also, the perception of workload is connected with the overall work environment and to mental workload [39,52]. For physicians, the change in workload also affected the perception of job role, determining high levels of stress [50].…”

COVID-19: Preventive Strategies among Workers in a Tertiary Health Institution in South-east Nigeria

“…The low proportion of the perceived preparedness maybe due to poor logistics put in place by the hospital management in case of eventual outbreak in the hospital. Igor et al in their study conducted among Italian physicians during the early outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic reported that 82.1% of the physicians felt that their organization was not prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic [24]. On the contrary, a study carried out in Saudi Arabia among clinical nurses observed that the nurses had a high perception of their hospital preparedness in combating COVID- 19 pandemic [25].…”

Worries, Preparedness, and Perceived Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Nurses' Mental Health

“…Worries and emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among nurses are still barely analyzed. Most of the available studies on the topic usually include physicians or other health care professionals ( 22 ). In relation to the peculiarities of its professional mandate and the current organization of the Italian health care service, the nursing profession is facing this critical situation in a transversal way, in different care contexts.…”