Abstract
The number of health workers infected with COVID-19 in Spain is one of the highest in the world. The aim of this study is to analyse posttraumatic stress, anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. Associations between burnout, resilience, demographic, work and COVID-19 variables are analysed. Cross-sectional data on 1422 health workers were analysed. A total of 56.6% of health workers present symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, 58.6% anxiety disorder, 46% depressive disorder and 41.1% feel emotionally drained. The profile of a health worker with greater posttraumatic stress symptoms would be a person who works in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, in a hospital, is a woman, is concerned that a person he/she lives with may be infected, and thinks that he/she is very likely to be infected. The risk variables for anxiety and depression would be a person that is a woman, working 12- or 24-h shifts, and being worried that a family member could be infected. High scores on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization are risk factors for mental health, with resilience and personal fulfilment being protective variables. Data are provided to improve preventive measures for occupational health workers.
Highlights
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020
Analyses were carried out to evaluate the proportion of health care cases with symptoms associated with possible posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and burnout at their different severity levels
The results show that 56.6% of health workers present symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder
Summary
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. In Europe, Italy and Spain were the first to report a high number of deaths, as well as a rapid increase in admissions to Intensive Care Units (ICU) of patients with symptoms associated with the disease. In May 2020, Spain is one of the top five countries with the highest number of people infected, registering over 242,707 cases as of 12 June 2020, and more than 27,136 deaths [1]. In critical pandemic-related situations, research indicates that individuals experience a stress response associated with their fear of contracting the virus from contact with other people or objects. They have symptoms of posttraumatic stress, such as intrusive thoughts, insomnia or nightmares [2]. During the epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (hereinafter, SARS), a high prevalence of symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety and depression was identified in emergency service professionals including hyperarousal, anger, loss of motivation at work, difficulty concentrating or trouble falling
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