Mental Health and Associated Demographic and Occupational Factors among Health Care Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Latvia

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the health care system. Front-line health care workers (HCWs) are at a higher risk of mental health adverse outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of the symptoms of depression and anxiety and associated demographic and occupational factors among front-line HCWs in Latvia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative study was performed in a population of HCWs during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia. The participants were interviewed between 28 April 2020 and 2 June 2020. Answers from 864 HCWs were obtained. The participants reported their demographics, work-related information, contacts with COVID-19-positive patients and completed two standardised questionnaires that assessed the symptoms of anxiety (GAD-7) and depression (PHQ-9). The gathered data were analysed by a chi-squared test and binary logistic regression. The data analysis was performed using SPSS v25. Results: A total of 209 (24.8%) participants had depression symptoms and 145 (17.2%) had anxiety symptoms. Health care workers older than 50 had a lower risk of both depression (OR 0.422 (95% CI, 0.262–0.680)) and anxiety (OR 0.468 (95% CI, 0.270–0.813)). General practitioners had more frequent symptoms of depression and anxiety than participants who worked at hospitals (32.8% (n = 63) versus 19.4% (n = 73) and 27.1% (n = 52) versus 10.3% (n = 39), respectively (p = 0.037; p < 0.000)). Working more than 48 h during the week was associated with a higher risk of depression (OR 2.222 (95% CI, 1.315–3.753)) and anxiety (OR 2.416 (95% CI, 1.272–4.586)). Conclusions: The vulnerability of the health care system before the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant mental health adverse outcomes of HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia. A further cohort study is needed to evaluate the dynamics of mental health and other predisposing factors of HCWs.

Distress and Wellbeing among General Practitioners in 33 Countries during COVID-19: Results from the Cross-Sectional PRICOV-19 Study to Inform Health System Interventions

“…A systematic review of 59 studies exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of professionals fighting against the pandemic [17] concluded that healthcare workers valued contact with and the social support of collaborators, resulting in less frequent mental health problems. Results from other studies showed that GPs suffered from depression and anxiety more frequently than hospital physicians, who regularly work in bigger teams [18], and that GPs working in larger practices are more satisfied and have fewer burnout symptoms than those working in single-handed practices [19]. These findings are in line with the results of our study, which showed that GPs working in larger practices had significantly lower distress than those working in solo or duo practices.…”

Self-Esteem and Occupational Factors as Predictors of the Incidence of Anxiety and Depression among Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Latvia

“…The prevalence of depression and anxiety was 24.8% and 17.2%, respectively. The results related to the T0 evaluation have been published elsewhere [16]. For the longitudinal study, 542 HCWs were excluded from the data analysis for depression symptoms and 512 HCWs from the data analysis for anxiety symptoms because they did not meet the inclusion criteria.…”

“…The total score range is 10-40. The questionnaire results were classified as categorical variables: low-level (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25), medium-level (26)(27)(28)(29), and high-level (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40) self-esteem [18,19]. An adapted version was used in Latvian, Cronbach's alpha 0.84 [20].…”

“…Caramello et al highlight the importance of data selection time: in their longitudinal study, follow-up was carried out in the summer when the COVID-19 infection rates were lower and the mental health of the HCWs had improved [13]. During the first COVID-19 wave, Latvia had good results in controlling COVID-19 infection among European Union countries; however, rates of depression and anxiety among HCWs were not far behind those countries that have been hit hard by COVID-19; during the second COVID-19 wave, Latvia was characterized by high mortality rates of COVID-19 [14][15][16]. Latvia is among the countries with a shortage of physicians and nurses, and the pandemic highlighted the lack of HCWs [17].…”

Mental health status of public health nurses and its related factors under the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Japan

“…The extracted frequency of working overtime as a related factor was found to match that found in previous studies. Dnder the COVID-19 pandemic situation, working over 48 h per week was associated with a higher risk of depression for health care workers in Latvia (Valaine, 2021) and working over 8 h a day was one of the risk factors for anxiety for physicians in Bangladesh (Khatun, 2021). Working on weekends was also extracted as a related factor in this study.…”