Anxiety and depression among medical doctors in Catalonia, Italy, and the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Climent Quintana-Domeque,Eugenio Proto,Michele Battisti,Anwen Zhang,Ines Lee,Antonia Ho

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0259213

Abstract

Healthcare workers have had the longest and most direct exposure to COVID-19 and consequently may suffer from poor mental health. We conducted one of the first repeated multi-country analysis of the mental wellbeing of medical doctors (n = 5,275) at two timepoints during the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020 and November/December 2020) to understand the prevalence of anxiety and depression, as well as associated risk factors. Rates of anxiety and depression were highest in Italy (24.6% and 20.1%, June 2020), second highest in Catalonia (15.9% and 17.4%, June 2020), and lowest in the UK (11.7% and 13.7%, June 2020). Across all countries, higher risk of anxiety and depression symptoms were found among women, individuals below 60 years old, those feeling vulnerable/exposed at work, and those reporting normal/below-normal health. We did not find systematic differences in mental health measures between the two rounds of data collection, hence we cannot discard that the mental health repercussions of the pandemic are persistent.

Highlights

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected many individuals both directly and indirectly, disrupting routines and introducing new stressors [1]
The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms among medical doctors in multiple countries during the pandemic, as well as the risk factors associated with those symptoms
This study provides one of the first repeated cross-country analyses of mental wellbeing among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected many individuals both directly and indirectly, disrupting routines and introducing new stressors [1]. Recent studies have shown that the pandemic has unequal effects on the psychological wellbeing of individuals, with women, younger individuals, and ethnic minorities being disproportionately affected [2, 3]. Effects vary by occupational groups as certain jobs expose workers more directly to the disease [4,5,6]. The mental wellbeing of healthcare workers has been affected by the pandemic [7,8,9,10]. Healthcare workers have been directly involved in the management of COVID-19 patients since the beginning of the pandemic.

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Conclusion