Impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare workers’ mental and physical health in Arab Countries

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers are under considerable psychological and physical pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in Arab countries, a comprehensive analysis of mental and physical health issues among healthcare workers (HCW) during the COVID-19 pandemic is still needed.Therefore, this systematic review aims to identify the mental and physical health impact among HCW in the Arab countries during the pandemic. Materials and Methods: This review was carried out using the PRISMA guidelines. Empirical studies were selected from the following databases PubMed, Scopus databases, Google Scholar, CINAHL (EBSCOhost), and MEDLINE (PubMed). Case reports, duplicate publications, reviews, and family-based studies were excluded. A total of 56 studies from 14 Arab countries reported the mental and physical health of HCW during the COVID-19 pandemic. The distribution of HCW analysed included doctors, nurses, paramedics, administrators and allied health workers. Results: The majority of the studies focused on HCW’s mental health (n=29), four studies focused on physical issues and 23 studies focused on both.The most-reported mental health issues were anxiety, depression, distress, stigmatization, risk of infection, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while the most reported physical health issues were physical abuse, exposure to the virus, exhaustion, burnout, underachievement, sleep deprivation, low life standard, and financial problems.