Abstract
Previous pandemics have demonstrated short and long-term impacts on healthcare workers’ mental health, causing knock-on effects on patient care and professional functioning. Indeed, the present COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruption in social interactions and working conditions. Malaysia has been under the Recovery Movement Control Order since June 2020; however, with the upsurge of cases, healthcare workers face pressure not only from working in resource-deprived settings but also from the increasing patient load. The primary objective of the present study was to examine the cross-sectional relationship of COVID-19 fear and stress to psychological distress (operationalized as anxiety and depression) in healthcare workers. The present sample included 286 frontline healthcare workers from three hospitals in Selangor, Malaysia. Self-administered questionnaires containing sociodemographic and occupational items, the Malay versions of the Coronavirus Stress Measure scale, the Fear of Coronavirus-19 scale, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were distributed via online platforms. Hierarchical multiple regression findings suggest that age, shift work, and COVID-19 stress consistently predicted anxiety and depression among frontline healthcare workers after adjusting for sociodemographic and occupational variables. The present findings suggest that frontline healthcare workers are not only inoculated against COVID-19 itself but also against the psychological sequelae of the pandemic.
Highlights
The present study examined the relative contribution of sociodemographic and occupational factors and COVID-19 fear and stress on psychological distress, namely in the form of anxiety and depression, in a sample of frontline healthcare workers from Malaysian national hospitals
Our hypothetical figure was that future mental health research could target shift work and COVID-19 stress in an attempt to allay anxiety and depression in frontline healthcare workers
The present study is the first to examine key constructs of fear and COVID-19 stress in relation to psychological distress in frontline healthcare workers who stand the highest risk for vicarious trauma from COVID-19 management
Summary
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has created unprecedented disruption in social interactions and working conditions, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally [1,2,3,4]. The sudden outbreak of this highly contagious disease is unpredictable and is associated with high mortality and morbidity [5], causing a tremendous toll on the population, including psychological distress (operationalized as anxiety and depression) [6,7]. Unique challenges to healthcare workers were presented at the beginning as treatment courses were still under investigation and vaccines were not yet produced [5,8]. Hence, there was great fear of
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
