Protective and Risk Factors for Medical and Nursing Staff Suffering From Psychological Symptoms During COVID-19

Hailong Luo,Yan Lv,Zhun Zhang,Xuewen Wang,Yuandi Xi,Jie Li,Jia Li,Huiqi Yao,Zhixiong Zhong

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.603553

Abstract

Background: With the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in China, the general public but also medical staff were confronted with psychological challenges, suffering from the highly infectious and unknown characteristics of COVID-19. In this study, we surveyed psychological symptoms including anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders in medical staff.Method: A questionnaire star/WeChat link-based survey assessing the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 depression, the Insomnia Severity Index, Social Support scales in addition to lifestyle, and income level was conducted and included 8,288 medical staff from 24 provinces in China. Pearson Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to evaluate single risk factors and significant differences in psychological symptoms before and during the outbreak of COVID-19. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted for the risk factors of anxiety, depression, and sleep disorder symptoms.Results: Medical staff had a high incidence of psychological symptoms, which was more prominent during the COVID-19 epidemic. Comparatively, females, nurses, first-line department, never exercised, and low income were risk factors for psychological symptoms. Social support including objective support, subjective support, support utility, and regular sports over 3 times per week were protective and manageable elements that could protect from and manage the psychological symptoms of medical staff.Conclusion: The susceptibility of psychological symptoms among medical staff should be of concern to policymakers and the public in the long-term, and the aggravation of mental health problems of medical staff could be eased by providing adequate social support during and after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Highlights

With the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in China, the general public and medical staff were confronted with psychological challenges, suffering from the highly infectious and unknown characteristics of COVID-19
COVID-19 still posed a challenge in Chinese society and medical staff standing on the frontline treating patients were suffering from pressure and phobia (Asmundson and Taylor, 2020)
There were 1,911,317 doctors and 3,020,813 nurses in China according to the 2018 annual survey, the province-specific data of the number of medical staff were not statistically available since the government divided those areas into several districts, and the data had not been taken into consideration

Summary

Introduction

With the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in China, the general public and medical staff were confronted with psychological challenges, suffering from the highly infectious and unknown characteristics of COVID-19. We surveyed psychological symptoms including anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders in medical staff. Depression, and sleep disorders were the most common psychological symptoms in frontline medical staff under stress (Yaribeygi et al, 2017) including emergency departments (Song et al, 2020), ICU (Hu et al, 2021), and territory hospitals Medical staff, including students and caregivers (Paiva et al, 2018), and professionals (Zerbini et al, 2020) were potentially at risk of developing psychological symptoms, which would affect their daily life and work. A similar situation was found in European countries (Hummel and Oetjen, 2021)

Methods

Results

Conclusion