Mental health, quality of life, and COVID-19 fear in Turkish healthcare workers practicing in pandemic hospitals

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Healthcare workers (HCWs) face work-related psychosocial risks. The ongoing pandemic is causing widespread concern&nbsp;in&nbsp;a variety of&nbsp;ways, including COVID-19 fear and anxiety. <b>Objective:</b> We aimed to evaluate mental health, quality of life, COVID-19 fear and related factors in Turkish HCWs practicing in pandemic hospitals. <b>Methods:</b> The data were collected in 13 provinces between 27 September and 11 November 2021 by researchers from the Early Career Task Force of the Turkish Thoracic Society. The study survey included sociodemographic, health- and work-related characteristics, the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) evaluating mental health, the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQoL-BREF) questionnaire and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). <b>Results:</b> Of 1,556 participants, 522 (33.5%) reported a need for mental health support (MHS) in the previous year. The FCV-19S weakly correlated with the GHQ-12 (r=0.234, p&lt;0.001) and WHOQoL-BREF domains (r=-0.245 for physical health, r=-0.182 for psychological health, r=-0.141 for social relationships and r=-0.183 for environmental health domains; p&lt;0.001). The need for MHS was the common significant variable for all scale scores in univariate analyses and multiple linear regression. After multiple linear regression, the FCV-19S score was significantly related to the GHQ-12 and all WHOQoL-BREF domain scores. <b>Conclusions:</b> Our results indicate a remarkable level of need for MHS. The need for MHS and COVID-19 fear are related to mental health and quality of life in Turkish HCWs. The self-reported need for MHS may serve as an alarming characteristic for HCWs’ psychosocial burden.