The Role of Coping Behavior in Healthcare Workers' Distress and Somatization During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Constantly searching for a balance between work demands and their own physical and psychological health has challenged medical and nursing staff during the immediate wake of this COVID-19 viral epidemic leading to acute stress reactions and psychosomatic symptoms. Coping behavior might be a buffer for work-related stress in relation to mental well-being. The present study aims to evaluate the role of positive and negative stress-reducing activities on healthcare workers' mental and physical well-being.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using an online survey that was sent out using our network of healthcare workers at the University of Antwerp and through social media. Socio-demographic data, coping behavior with the Palliative Pallet Scale (P3), and distress and somatization using the Four-dimensional symptom checklist were collected. Surveys were completed by 1,376 participants.Results: The results clearly showed that positive stress-reducing activities are related to fewer symptoms of distress and somatization. Providing direct care to COVID-19 patients was associated with a higher decrease of applying positive stress-reducing activities during the peak of the pandemic compared to the ideal situation. Finally, fewer symptoms of distress and somatization were associated with the following activities: reading, mind sports games, keeping a hobby collection, studying; engaging in sexual activities with your partner; cleaning the house, tidying up, working in the garden, doing household chores; exercising alone; walking, or taking a trip together with someone; exercise together with someone; watching TV, listening/playing (to) music/, playing computer games; playing a card game or other board game; and preparing something extra tasteful outside regular meals.Conclusion: Our study demonstrated an association between concrete coping behaviors and distress and somatization in healthcare workers during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results provide relevant and additional insights to develop and investigate interventions among others in personal leadership and resilience.

Determinants of the risk of burnout among nurses during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic in Belgium: A cross‐sectional study

“…A burnout workforce may negatively impact patients and organisational outcomes; therefore, health care system policymakers and managers must provide adequate evidence‐based interventions to support workers' well‐being (Hofmeyer et al, 2020 ). Several studies encourage nurse managers to focus on organisation and communication (Duncan, 2020 ; Franck, Goossens, et al, 2021 ; Franck, Haegdorens, et al, 2021 ; Nelson & Lee‐Winn, 2020 ). Individual or group debriefing is an information‐sharing and event‐processing session conducted as a conversation and that is considered good practice after a disaster or after an adverse event (Debra & Romana, 2007 ).…”

What Is the Role of Resilience and Coping Strategies on the Mental Health of the General Population during the COVID-19 Pandemic? Results from the Italian Multicentric COMET Study

“…Several studies have been carried out so far in order to identify the prevalence of personal or social factors protecting people from developing mental disorders during the pandemic [41][42][43][44][45][46]. In particular, studies have been focused on the perceived levels of stress, resilience, and coping strategies related to COVID-19 in the general population [47,48], in older adults [45,49], in pregnant women [50][51][52][53], in college students [54], in children and adolescents [55,56], and in mental health professionals [57,58].…”

Dimensions of emotional distress among Brazilian workers in a COVID-19 reference hospital: A factor analytical study

“…Our findings were in accordance with these studies, showing that the retained dimension accounted for a substantial 24% of the data variance, with symptoms of hopelessness, anhedonia, and anergia being more represented than complaints of anxiety and burnout. A possible explanation for this dimension may be the important role of chronic stress in the workplace and decreased protective health actions for the development of psychological conditions among those professionals, such as high workload, changes in daily routine, reduced physical activity, scarcity of resources, and lack of rest[ 36 - 38 ]. Corroborating this proposition, our analysis did not find a significant correlation between acute threatening events and this dimension, which is also consistent with the suggestion that the association between direct contact with COVID-19 patients and anxiety and depression is based on weak evidence[ 23 ].…”