Abstract
Objectives: The study aimed to assess the mental health outcomes and associated factors among health care workers during COVID 19 in Saudi Arabia.Design, Setting, and Participants: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of health care workers from tertiary care and ministry of health Centers across the Central, Eastern, and Western regions of Saudi Arabia. There were 1,130 participants in the survey, and we collected demographic and mental health measurements from the participants.Primary Outcomes and Measures: The magnitude of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia was measured using the original version of 9-item patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9), the 7-item generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7), and 7-item insomnia severity index (ISI). We use the multiple logistic regression analysis to identify the associated risk factors of individual outcomes.Results: The scores on the PHQ-9 showed that the largest proportion of health care workers (76.93%) experienced only normal to mild depression (50.83 and 26.1%, respectively). The scores on the GAD-7 showed that the largest proportion of health care workers (78.88%) experienced minimal to mild anxiety (50.41 and 28.47%, respectively). The scores on the ISI showed that the largest proportion of health care workers (85.83%) experienced absence to subthreshold insomnia (57.08 and 28.75%, respectively). The risk factors for depression in health care workers were Saudi, living with family, working from an isolated room at home and frontline worker. For anxiety, being female was risk factor and for insomnia, being frontline worker was risk factor.Conclusion: It was observed that the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia were reported in a lower proportion of health care workers in our study. The participants who were female, frontline workers, Saudi, living with family, and working from home in isolated rooms were predisposed to developing psychological disorders.
Highlights
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), known as COVID-19, started in Wuhan’s Chinese city at the end of December 2019 and was declared a global public health concern by WHO at the end of January 2020 [1]
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to evaluate the mental health of the Health Care Workers (HCWs) as they are constantly exposing themselves to the risk of infection and separating themselves from their families for weeks to avoid transmitting the virus to them
60% of the participants had children, and 62% had no previous experience with the pandemic, and only 32.5% have received some training to work during such a crisis
Summary
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2), known as COVID-19, started in Wuhan’s Chinese city at the end of December 2019 and was declared a global public health concern by WHO at the end of January 2020 [1]. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to evaluate the mental health of the Health Care Workers (HCWs) as they are constantly exposing themselves to the risk of infection and separating themselves from their families for weeks to avoid transmitting the virus to them. HCWs are most susceptible to emotional distress in the current pandemic due to their risk of exposure to the virus, fear about infecting and caring for their loved ones, scarcity of personal protective equipment (PPE), and long work hours [3, 4]. During the 2003 SARS outbreak, a study reported that HCWs feared infecting their families or friends and felt stigmatized because they were known to contact with sick patients [5,6,7,8] This led to them experiencing significant longterm psychological stress even after 1 year from the outbreak [8]. Many of them would have post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health problems down the line as they have no experience watching a patient being intubated or die in front of them [9]
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