Rapid survey of psychological status of health-care workers during the early outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic: A single-centre study at a tertiary care hospital in Northern India

Abstract

Background: Considering the impending crisis of COVID-19 and hospitals across India and the world gearing up to manage such cases, an online survey to assess the baseline psychological symptoms in health-care workers (HCWs) of a single tertiary care hospital was designed. The survey was cleared by the institutional ethics committee. Materials and Methods: An online self-reported survey was designed on the Google Survey portal, COVID: A survey of stress (SOS COVID) and posted on various closed WhatsApp group of employees. A snowball sampling method was adopted. We collected self-reported data on socio-demographics and data in relation to COVID-19 patient care, depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7), insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index) and perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale-10). Results: Two hundred and twenty-seven participants responded to the online survey. The mean age was 28.77 years, 64% were female, mostly (74.9%) resided outside the campus and approximately half (46.7%) were frontline worker. On average, participants had low scores on all the scales, but approximately 23% scored above the cut-off for either moderate to severe depression, anxiety or insomnia. Those scoring higher (lower) in one scale also scored similarly on other scales. The chances of scoring above cut-off were significantly higher in females (P = 0.022), postgraduate educated (P = 0.018), physicians (P = 0.006) and residents of the campus (P = 0.011), though being a female and a physician persisted as significant predictors on logistic regression analysis. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic created considerable anxiety and stress among the HCWs. The most vulnerable HCWs are women and physicians who may require special support services to address the extra burden of psychological distress.