Abstract
The study aim was to understand the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the levels of anxiety, depression, and burnout of healthcare workers (HCWs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study was an online-based, cross-sectional survey during July and August 2020. Participants were eligible from the entire country, and 1290 agreed to participate. The majority of HCWs were females aged 30–39 years old, working as nurses, and 80% considered PPE to be available. Twelve percent of respondents tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Half of HCWs considered themselves physically tired (52.2%), reported musculoskeletal pain or discomfort (54.2%), and perceived moderate-to-high levels of burnout on at least one of three burnout domains (52.8%). A quarter of HCWs reported anxiety (26.3%) or depression (28.1%). HCWs reporting not having musculoskeletal pain, having performed physical activity, and higher scores of available PPE reported lower scores of anxiety, depression, and burnout. UAE HCWs experienced more access to PPE and less anxiety, depression, and burnout compared with HCWs in other countries. Study findings can be used by healthcare organizations and policymakers to ensure adequate measures are implemented to maximize the health and wellbeing of HCWs during the current COVID-19 and future pandemics.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-COV-2, was first detected at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China [1]
Depression varied in terms of occupation (p = 0.005), with higher levels of depression reported amongst physicians, healthcare workers (HCWs) working a greater number of night shift hours (p = 0.005), less sleep (p < 0.001), more physical fatigue (p < 0.001), less physical activity in the past week (p < 0.001), more musculoskeletal pain (p < 0.001), and a perception of less adequate protective equipment (PPE) (p < 0.001) (Table 2)
Several studies have been published on the same topic, but the data collection periods vary, and for this reason, we highlight here that the comparisons made were done by the type of study and not study period, where the different stages and waves of the pandemic might have had an impact on the anxiety, depression, and burnout levels of the HCWs included in those studies [13,21,27,36,47]
Summary
Suad Ajab 1 , Balázs Ádam 1 , Muna Al Hammadi 2 , Najwa Al Bastaki 3 , Mohamed Al Junaibi 4 , Abdulmajeed Al Zubaidi 4 , Mona Hegazi 5 , Michal Grivna 1,6 , Suhail Kady 4 , Erik Koornneef 1,4 , Raquel Neves 7 , António Sousa Uva 8 , Mohamud Sheek-Hussein 1 , Tom Loney 9 , Florentino Serranheira 8 and Marília Silva Paulo 1,10, *. CHRC, Comprehensive Health Research Center, Nova Medical School, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 1169-056 Lisbon, Portugal. Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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