Abstract
During COVID-19 pandemic peaks, healthcare professionals are a frontline workforce that deals with death on an almost daily basis and experiences a marked increase in workload. Returning home is also associated with fear of contaminating or be contaminated. An obvious consequence is stress accumulation and associated risks, especially in caregivers in mobility and possibly in human resource teams managing mobility. Here, during the second pandemic peak, we designed a 15-min testing procedure at the workplace, combining HADS and Brief COPE questionnaires with heart rate variability (HRV) recordings to evaluate psychophysiological status in four groups: caregivers in mobility (MOB); human resources teams managing mobility (ADM); caregivers without mobility (N-MOB); and university researchers teaching online (RES). Anxiety, depression, coping strategies, vagally-mediated heart rate regulation, and nonlinear dynamics (entropy) in cardiac autonomic control were quantified. Anxiety reached remarkably high levels in both MOB and ADM, which was reflected in vagal and nonlinear HRV markers. ADM maintained a better problem-solving capacity. MOB and N-MOB exhibited degraded problem-solving capacity. Multivariate approaches show how combining psychological and physiological markers helps draw highly group-specific psychophysiological profiles. Entropy in HRV and problem-solving capacity were highly relevant for that. Combining HADS and Brief COPE questionnaires with HRV testing at the workplace may provide highly relevant cues to manage mobility during crises as well as prevent health risks, absenteeism, and more generally malfunction incidents at hospitals.
Highlights
During COVID-19 pandemic peaks, healthcare professionals are a frontline workforce that deals with death on an almost daily basis and experiences a marked increase in workload
The above-described situation gives rise to two phenomena that have not been addressed with equivalent level of attention: first, the comparison of frontline and second-line COVID-19 healthcare workers [3] has shown higher anxiety and depression levels [4] associated with deteriorated sleep quality and long-term post-traumatic stress in frontline workers [5]; second, the densification of adequate management of the mobility has deeply impacted the mission of human resources teams, with possible consequences on their health
Caregivers in mobility (MOB), and more surprisingly human resources people (ADM), demonstrated high levels of anxiety, which was effectively reflected in a degraded cardiac autonomic control; (ii) Comparatively, less degraded psychophysiological status was observed in non-mobile caregivers (N-MOB) and university researchers (RES), despite blunted coping strategy in N-MOB; (iii) Five markers were prevalent to establish distinctive psychophysiological profiles, namely anxiety, depression, problem solving, vagally-mediated heart rate (HR) and complexity in cardiac autonomic control; (iv) Among these markers, HR complexity and problem solving appeared to be highly relevant for the exploration of crisis-induced anxiety
Summary
During COVID-19 pandemic peaks, healthcare professionals are a frontline workforce that deals with death on an almost daily basis and experiences a marked increase in workload. In the health sector, disruptions have reached an unprecedented degree due to the severity and duration of the crisis This real upheaval can have serious consequences for health in caregivers, especially in emergency and resuscitation teams during the pandemic peaks where overwork is obvious but not the unique risk factor [1]. In these departments, caregivers are on the frontline and confronted with the death of their patients on an almost daily basis, adding staff is an imperative for an adequate activity, which highlights the issue of mobility management. The mistrust of their entourage toward their risky job, the fear of spreading the virus outside the hospital, and the distress about infecting their own family [6,7] represent common daily life difficulties [2]
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