Family Medicine Practitioners’ Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world, but also caregiver’s practices. The World Health Organization warned about the stress it could generate for General Practitioners (GPs). In France, GPs were not involved in the decision-making process for organization of care before and during the first COVID-19 wave. Our objective was to estimate the self-perception of stress at the beginning of the pandemic in France, among GPs from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (AuRA), a french administrative area severely impacted by COVID-19, and to identify which factors may have modulated this perception.Methods We conducted an online cross-sectional survey between 8th of April to 10th of May 2020. The self-perception of stress was evaluated using the 10-item Perceived Stress Score (PSS-10). An agreement score developed by the study scientific committee was measured for 31 positive assertion. Factors associated with stress were investigated using logistic regression, and triangulation based on verbatim analysis. Results Overall, 898 individual answers were collected. A total of 437 GPs (49%) were stressed (PSS≥27), and 283 GPs (32%) had a very high level of stress (PSS≥30). Perceived stress was associated with multiple components, and involved classic psychosocial risk factors such as emotional requirements: 415 GPs (49%) were affected by patient anxiety (OR=3.41, 95%CI [1.87-6.36], p<0.001). But in this context of health crisis, the main determinant of GPs’ stress appears to be the diversity and quantity of information from diverse sources (614 GPs (69%, OR=2.21, 95%CI [1.40-3.50], p<0.001). GPs felt isolated in a hospital-based model.Conclusion The first COVID-19 wave was stressful for AuRA’s GPs. One of the main determinants seems to be the diversity and quantity of information received from the health authorities.