Mental Health of Physicians During COVID-19 Outbreak in Bangladesh: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

There have been numerous studies about the health implication of COVID-19 on patients, but little attention has been paid to the impacts of the pandemic on physicians. Our paper attends to this gap by exploring the mental health of physicians in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is particularly important since the mental health of physicians impacts not only on themselves, but also their professional performance and hence the care of patients. This study examined physicians' mental health outcomes by evaluating the prevalence and associated potential risk factors of anxiety and depression. Using a web-based cross-sectional survey, we collected data from 114 physicians. Seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale and Nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) were used to measure the anxiety and depression, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to explore the potential risk factors related to anxiety and depression. The prevalence of anxiety and depression were 32.5 and 34.2%, respectively. Findings revealed that marital status, work per day and current job location were the main risk factors for anxiety while sex, age, and marital status were the main risk factors for depression. Our results highlight the need to implement policies and strategies for positively impacting the mental health of physicians during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prevalence and risk factors of mental disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: a systematic review

“…But heterogeneity of depression rate distribution with marital status was also found in a comparative study among the general population and healthcare professionals; that is, the divorced participants reported the highest depression rate followed by those who were unmarried and married (53.5%, 33.6%, and 23.7%, respectively) (36). Similarly, physicians being either unmarried or divorced or widowed or separated compared to married ones experiencing 3-times higher depressive symptoms (40).…”

“…Prevalence of mental disorders: Healthcare professionals Due to close contact with the COVID-19 infected and/or suspected patients, the healthcare professionals generally experience higher psychological distresses. Only four studies were conducted focusing on the mental health of the healthcare professionals, whereas the prevalence of depression and anxiety ranged from 34.2-48.5% and 32.5-69.5%, respectively (22,24,25,40). Nevertheless, stress was not reported in any of the studies.…”

“…Gender was found to be a signi cant predictor of mental disorders in a large number of studies (8, 14,[19][20][21][22][24][25][26]29,30,32,35,36,[38][39][40]. A study found that females were suffering mostly from depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively, where it was 3.4-, 3.4-and 4.5 times higher than males (19).…”

“…Marital status had been found signi cant in a total of 6-studies (21,26,29,36,39,40), which depicted that a married person was at approximately 2-times higher risk of suffering from anxiety than an unmarried person (29). But heterogeneity of depression rate distribution with marital status was also found in a comparative study among the general population and healthcare professionals; that is, the divorced participants reported the highest depression rate followed by those who were unmarried and married (53.5%, 33.6%, and 23.7%, respectively) (36).…”

Prevalence of Psychological Impacts on Healthcare Providers during COVID-19 Pandemic in Asia

“…The studies were from Eastern Asia (n = 40)[8][9][10], South-eastern Asia (n = 5)[63][64][65][66][67], Southern Asia (n = 18)[68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85], Western Asia (n = 15)[4,17,[86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98] and combination of South-eastern and Southern Asia (n = 2)[99,100] (Supplementary TableS2). Studies from Eastern Asia came from China, Japan, and Korea.…”