SA54 Physical and Mental Health Among Frontline Healthcare Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic in Hungary

Abstract

Healthcare workers faced against increased physical and psychological stress which leads burnout all over the world due to outbreak of Covid-19. The aim of our study was to investigate the physical and mental state of the Hungarian frontline healthcare workers to highlight the negative affect of the pandemic. A quantitative cross-sectional study was made. Data were collected from September 2021 till February 2022 by an online questionnaire method consisted of self-created questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory short version (BDI-9), Nordic Musculoskeletal System Query (NMQ) Hungarian and Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). The questionnaire was filled out by 315 volunteers anonymously. Microsoft Excel 2016 and IBM SPSS v25 statistical software were used for statistical analyze. From the 315 participants (mean age was 43.83±10 year) only 3.8% were men (n=12) while 96.2% were women. The result showed that 89% of the participants suffered from different level of depression and 98,7% reported musculoskeletal pain at least once in their life. Since the breakout of the pandemic musculoskeletal pain was observed at 49% of the volunteers. Neck was defined as most affected region (29%) of the total sample. Significant correlation was determined between depression and pain emerged in neck (p=0.003) and in back (p=0.011) regions. 16.20±5.57 was the results of the participants on Beck depression scale who had pain in neck area and only 13.91±5.47 who did not have pain. Significant difference was also found between physical activity (346.88±417.74 min/week) and pain in wrist/hand (p=0.004) and hip/thigh (p=0.004) areas. Our study showed that Covid-19 pandemic had several negativ effects on frontline healthcare workers such as depression, musculoskeletal pain and would be recommended in such case to pay special attention to this sector and providing the healthcare worker with mental and physical support.