COVID anxiety among Frontline Health care workers in a COVID care center: A hospital based study

Abstract

Context: The spread of COVID 19 throughout the world has strained many aspects of human day to day activity. One sector which has been working untiringly since the pandemic emerged is health care sector. Aims: So the study was planned to assess the anxiety, stress and work & social adjustment and factors influencing the same. Settings and Design: This was hospital based study carried out for period of 4 months from July to October 2020 in a Covid Care center, Kolar. Materials and Methods: Study participants were frontline health care workers (FLHCW) like doctors and nurses who were part of Covid care of patients who had not contracted the infection, working in COVID related wards and Out-patient department. Sample size was calculated based on previous study which was 360. Statistical Analysis used: Descriptive statistics applied where ever needed and to check for association between factors Chi-square was applied with level of significance defined as p value less than 0.05. Multinomial logistic regression was done to identify the factors. Results: Out of 362 FHCWs, 142(39.2%) belonged to age group of 21-25 years, 243(67.1%) were female FHCW, 86(23.8%) were Junior Residents, 105(29%) were working in COVID ward, 187(51.7%) were working more than 8 hours,189(52.2%) Perceived their workload during COVID duties as medium, 265(73.2%) followed Regular working Shifts followed during COVID. Out of 362 FLHCWs, 45 (12.4%) had high stress. With respect to work and social adjustment, severe psychopathology was seen in 178(49.2%) and 196(54.1%) had Corona anxiety. Conclusions: Gender, occupation and marital status were found to have statistically significant association with work and social adjustment. Working hours per day, occupation, perceived workload during duties, regular shits during Covid duties and hours of rest during Covid duties were few factors which were found to have statistically significant association with Corona anxiety. Key Messages: The present study stresses