Evaluation of Mental Health Status in healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic in south west of Iran

Abstract

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers were exposed to risk of physical and mental health status. The aim of this study was evaluation of Mental Health Status during Covid-19 pandemic in healthcare workers in Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. Methods In total, 2552 healthcare wokers that work in 24 hospitals and 212 Comprehensive health centers were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. All healthcare professional (clinical and none clinical staffs) who had been working in the hospitals and health center of AJUMS during the COVID-19 pandemic were surveyed. The three questionnaires consist of demographic, PHQ9, Kessler Scale were distributed across social media. Results The mean age of participants was 37.94 ± 8.07 years and 25.3% of participation was male. There was significant difference between mean score of Kessler and PHQ9 Scale on males and females (P < 0.001). Also the results showed a significant difference between depression, anxiety, and stress and working on intensive care unit. According to result of the Kessler scale 27% of participants had moderate to severe. A majority of the respondents (65.5%) in all professions had moderate to severe mental distress scores according to the Kessler scale. The results of logistic regression model illustrated that the effect of gender, work place, supporting by families and collogues, job satisfaction and feel the stress of media coverage of COVID 19 was significant on depression and anxiety (P < 0.05). Conclusions The present study revealed that medical and health worker suffer from great mental health problems. In this study, up to one-fifth of medical staff had stress, anxiety or depression symptoms and more than half of them had psychological distress.