Differences between health workers and general population in risk perception, behaviors, and psychological distress related to COVID-19 spread in Italy.

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the perception of risk and the worries about COVID-19 infection in both healthcare workers and general population in Italy. We studied the difference in risk perception in these two groups, and how this related to demographic variables and psychological factors such as stress, anxiety, and death anxiety. To this aim, we administered an online questionnaire about COVID-19 together with other questionnaires assessing the psychological condition of participants. First, we found that the exposition to infection risk, due to living area or job, increased the perceived stress and anxiety (i.e. medical staff in North Italy was more stressed and anxious respect to both medical- and non-medical participants from Center and South Italy). Then, we conducted hierarchical logistic regression models on our data to assess the response odds ratio relatively to each predictor on each dependent variable. We found that health workers reported higher risk perception, level of worry, and knowledge as related to COVID-19 infection compared to general population. Also psychological state, gender, and living area were important predictors of these factors. Instead, judgments about behaviors and containment rules were more linked to demographics, such as gender and alcohol consumption. We discussed these results in the light of risk factors for psychological distress and possible interventions to meet the psychological needs of healthcare workers.

Stuck Outside and Inside: An Exploratory Study on the Effects of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Italian Parents and Children’s Internalizing Symptoms

“…The data on parents' internalizing symptoms suggest that fear of contagion is an important psychological factor that negatively impacts psychological well-being of healthy adult individuals, subject to isolation and confinement to prevent spread of the new coronavirus. This is in line with results of previous studies showing that fear of infection was a significant stressor during quarantine (see the reviews by Brooks et al, 2020) or, more generally but specifically related to Covid-19, that higher perceived risk of infection increased individuals' stress and anxiety (Simione and Gnagnarella, 2020). Of interest, in one study investigating the school's communities response to school closure during the H1N1 2009 influenza pandemic (Braunack-Mayer et al, 2013), it was found that the individuals who were more concerned about becoming infected or spreading the virus to others tended to be those with young children (or to be pregnant women).…”

The mental health of healthcare workers in the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review

“…HCWs in these areas expressed higher mental disturbance than those in other regions [4,20]. Also, medical staff working in North Italy with the highest number of patients reported higher levels of anxiety and stress than HCWs or the general public from other regions of Italy [22].…”

Evaluating the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: perceived risk of COVID-19 infection and childhood trauma predict adult depressive symptoms in urban South Africa

“…Andrew Wooyoung Kim et al (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020;Zhang & Ma, 2020). Studies from China, Italy, and the USA show that perceived severity of the pandemic, psychological distress from COVID-19, and increased risk perceptions predicted poorer psychiatric outcomes (Ding et al, 2020;Li, Yang, Dou, & Cheung, 2020;Rodriguez, Litt, & Stewart, 2020;Simione & Gnagnarella, 2020). The opposite may also be truelearned hopelessness and increased stress sensitivity characteristic of depression may lead to worse appraisals of stressful conditions, such as heightened perceptions of disease risk (Folkman & Lazarus, 1986;Luseno et al, 2020;Rovner, Haller, Casten, Murchison, & Hark, 2014).…”