Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Care Workers

Abstract Background The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a highly devastating infectious disease, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are amongst the high-risk group to acquire this infection. In March 2020 infectious disease outbreaks are known to cause a psychological impact on healthcare workers. Direct contact of HCWs with patients puts them at high risk of infection, increasing their fear and anxiety. COVID-19 can be an independent risk factor for stress among HCWs. Objective To understand the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak among our health care worker (HCW) who are dealing with COVID-19 patients, which is crucial in guiding policies and interventions to maintain their psychological wellbeing. And determine the sociographic factors effect on the severity of anxiety and depression symptoms. Patients and Methods We conducted a written survey among Chest medical staff at Al-Abbasia Chest Hospital. We used Hamilton scale for assessing the depression and anxiety. Results The mean total anxiety score was 19.11±9.78 and anxiety degree classification: (43.5% Mild – 26.1% mild to moderate. 21.7% moderate to severe and 8.7% severe). The depression scores of the participants ranged from 0 to 30 with mean±SD = 10.21±6.04 (47.8%) of the patients had no depression symptoms, (23.9%) of the patients had mild depression (16.3%) of the patients had mild to moderate depression and (12%) of the patients had moderate to severe depression. None of the studied sociodemographic characteristics was a statistically significant predictor of moderate to severe anxiety. However, increase duration of work-related COVID-19 exposure by one month increased the risk of depression by 1.59. Conclusion There is a high prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression among healthcare worker during the COVID-19 outbreak. females participants reported significant higher GIT Symptoms than males Patents with associated comorbidities reported higher anxiety symptoms than patients free from somebodies. Patients with positive history of COVID-19 reported higher significant anxiety symptoms. Statistically significant positive correlation between duration from last COVID19 infection with depression symptoms. Statistically significant positive correlation between duration from age of participants and total anxiety score.