Factors Influencing Mental Health of Medical Workers During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

Background: Since the outbreak of COVID-19, physical and psychological harm has been spreading across the global population alongside the spread of the virus. Currently, the novel coronavirus has spread to most countries in the world, and its impact on the public is also increasing. As a high-risk group in direct contact with the virus, medical workers should be monitored, and their mental health deserves extensive attention. The aim of this study was to explore the mental health of medical workers facing the novel coronavirus and the main factors affecting it. Methods: The present cross-sectional study including 2,100 eligible individuals from 1,050 hospitals in China was conducted through the network platform powered by www. wjx.cn, a platform providing functions equivalent to Amazon Mechanical Turk. We used a self-designed questionnaire to collect demographic information and data on mental states, including gender, age (years), educational level, job rank, body and mind reaction, cognition of risk, and the judgment of the epidemic situation. Independent samples t-tests and one-way (ANOVA) analysis were carried out to compare the differences in the mental reactions according to the demographic and psychological states of the participants. Results: There were 502 males (23.9%) and 1,598 females (76.1%). The participants reported feeling calm (39.1%), tense (63.0%), scared (31.4%), angry (18.8%), sad (49.0%), afraid (34.7%), optimistic (5.1%), impressed (65.0%), and confident (31.1%) during the epidemic. At the same time, the psychological stress responses of medical staff were significantly different according to the levels of exposure in their environments, duration and personal experience. Conclusions: Prolonged exposure to the virus and intense work are detrimental to the mental health of medical care personnel. It is necessary to adjust work conditions and intensity according to workers' mental state flexibly and systematically.

What We Have Learned from Two Decades of Epidemics and Pandemics: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Psychological Burden of Frontline Healthcare Workers

“…All 79 cross-sectional studies [41, 42, 44-50, 52-54, 56-63, 65-74, 77-122, 124-126] met four or more quality criteria, with 38 studies meeting all eight [41, 44, 48, 50, 54, 57, 59, 60, 63, 65-67, 74, 78-80, 83, 87-89, 91, 93, 96, 99-102, 104, 105, 107-109, 113, 119-121, 124, 126]. Most of the studies clearly defined criteria for inclusion in the sample, described study subjects and setting in detail, measured the exposure in a valid, reliable way, and used objective standard criteria for measurement of condition and appropriate statistical analysis.…”

“…Most of the 86 studies applying a cross-sectional study design assessed the psychological impact at a single point in time. Namely, 29 studies performed data collection in earlier phases of the outbreak in the respective country [64-66, 77, 79-81, 84-89, 91, 96, 98, 100, 103, 105, 106, 108, 109, 111-115, 120, 126], nine during the outbreak [69, 73, 82, 95, 97, 101, 110, 118, 125], 32 in later phases [41, 42, 44-46, 50, 53, 54, 56, 59-61, 67, 68, 70-72, 74, 78, 83, 90, 92-94, 102, 104, 107, 117, 119, 121, 122, 124], and eight after the end of the outbreak [47-49, 52, 57, 58, 63, 99]. Another seven studies focusing on SARS [43, 51, 55], MERS [64], and COVID-19 [75, 76, 123] also included follow-up data.…”

“…More than two-thirds of the studies ( n = 60) [41-45, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53-55, 57, 59, 60, 62-68, 71, 72, 74, 75, 78-80, 83, 87-93, 99-105, 107-109, 111-117, 119-122, 124, 126] compared psychological and psychosomatic symptoms between frontline staff and other groups of participants (e.g., non-frontline healthcare providers, general public).…”

Mental Health Outcomes Among Healthcare Workers and the General Population During the COVID-19 in Italy

“…Challenges for staff include the increased workload and physical exhaustion due to the severe condition of the patients, witnessing a higher-than-usual death’s rate among their patients, fears of contagion for themselves and their families and seeing colleagues falling ill or dying ( Walton et al, 2020 ; Zhang Y. et al, 2020 ).…”

Changes in Nursing Students' Career Choices Following the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

“…Frontline health professionals, particularly nurses, played a key role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic (4). However, frequent exposure to COVID-19 cases, heavy workload and long working hours resulted in physical and mental burnout, emotional distress and psychiatric problems (5,6) among healthcare workers including severe anxiety and depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbances (4,(7)(8)(9)(10)). An international study found that physical symptoms (i.e., headache and sore throat) were common in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak, which was associated with more severe anxiety, depression, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder (11).…”