Abstract
BackgroundHealthcare providers are vulnerable in the fight against COVID-19 and may experience significant psychological and mental health consequences. This study aimed to compare the levels of depressive symptoms among frontline and non-frontline healthcare providers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in two government hospitals managing COVID-19-related cases in Kelantan, Malaysia from May to July 2020 to identify and compared depressive symptoms levels of frontline and non-frontline healthcare providers. Convenient sampling was applied in the selection of eligible participants and those diagnosed as having any psychiatric illnesses were excluded. The self-administered questionnaires for the Malay versions of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to measure depressive symptoms score and the Medical Outcome Study Social Support Survey to measure social support score as an important confounder. A descriptive analysis, independent t-test and ANCOVA were performed using SPSS version 26.ResultsA total of 306 respondents from healthcare providers were recruited which 160 were frontline healthcare providers and 146 were non-frontline healthcare providers. The level of depressive symptoms (HADS score >8) was 27.5% for the frontline healthcare providers and 37.7% for the non-frontline healthcare providers. The mean depressive symptoms score for the non-frontline healthcare providers was 0.75 points higher than that of the frontline healthcare providers after adjusting for gender, duration of employment and social support.ConclusionNon-frontline healthcare providers are also experiencing psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic even though they do not have direct contact with COVID-19 patients.
Highlights
A year has passed since the first case of Corovavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was diagnosed, the case numbers are continuing to increase, with more than 50 million people globally having been infected and more than one million death [1]
This study aimed to compare the levels of depressive symptoms among frontline and non-frontline healthcare providers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in two government hospitals managing COVID-19-related cases in Kelantan, Malaysia from May to July 2020 to identify and compared depressive symptoms levels of frontline and non-frontline healthcare providers
Summary
A year has passed since the first case of Corovavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was diagnosed, the case numbers are continuing to increase, with more than 50 million people globally having been infected and more than one million death [1]. The increasing numbers of infected patients make them highly vulnerable to experiencing physical, mental and emotional exhaustion These psychological burdens, especially among frontline staff, may have an impact on their mental health. Depression, distress, sleep problems and somatic symptoms are among the common mental health problems experienced by healthcare providers during disease outbreaks [2]. These psychological impacts are significantly increased as healthcare providers have to work in high-risk environments and may have family members with COVID-19, suboptimal hand hygiene before and after contact with patients, inadequate personal protective equipment, close contact with patients ( 12 times/day), long working hours ( 15 h/day) and unprotected exposure to COVID 19 [3]. Staff redeployed as frontline healthcare providers have increased levels of distress due to inadequate knowledge and experience managing COVID-19 patients and inadequate protective equipment, control measures and training to prevent the possibility of disease transmission [4]
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