Investigating Anxiety, Depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (OCD) among healthcare workersin COVID-19 unit and the control group

Abstract

To investigate anxiety, depression, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (OCDs) among the healthcare workers (HCWs) to compare the healthcare workers in COVID positive services with the control group. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 198 subjects participating in the study. To test the difference between the two groups involved in COVID-19 hospitalization section and normal section in Anxiety, Depression, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Scale, two sample independent t-tests, however, Welch–Satterthwaite P Values were considered for test significance. The categorical variables (sex, branch type, etc.) were also tested using the Chi-Square test to make sure that the two samples were not influenced by the demographics of the population. 198 subjectspartici pated in the study, among whom 72% were female and 28.3% were male. 130 participants (66%) worked in COVID and 68 participants (35%) worked in other sections.The mean age of the two samples was close to 35 and most of them (~45%) were nurses. 57% of the pooled samples had Emergency Response Experience (ERE).There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding sex, education, marital status, and ERE, however, the branch type showed major differences between the two groups(P-value < 0.08). The age difference between the two groups was also insignificant. Working in the COVID-19 section significantly increased anxiety scores from 9.62 to 13.15 with a P-value of