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Abstract
We carried out a mental health assessment survey of frontline workers in Eastern and
Southern Africa regarding COVID-19 pandemic in the region. A total of 723 people responded
to the anonymous survey which was available in English, French and Portuguese. Two
thirds of respondents felt overwhelmed and the remaining one third expressed fear
of the pandemic. Concern about self and one´s wellbeing was associated with the feeling
of being supported by one´s supervisor. Frontline workers that acknowledged supervisor
support also expressed a significantly better wellbeing than others that did not receive
supportive supervision. It is important to strengthen supervisors´ capacity for psychological
support to their subordinates. It is also necessary to emphasise the importance of
giving attention to staff mental health concerns. Supervisors should provide information
on referral opportunities and encourage their staff to take advantage of them when
in need of specialised services. While frontline workers have been celebrated worldwide
for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports also indicate that some of
them are exposed to stigma, discrimination and even violence within their communities,
at workplace and surroundings. Further studies will improve current understanding
of the mental health and psychological concerns other categories of professional caregivers
experienced while responding to the pandemic.
Highlights • The current review was done to conduct systematic appraisal of studies conducted on Mental health problems faced by healthcare workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • Out of 23 articles selected by initial screening 6 original articles were included in the final review. • Review of all the 6 articles showed that several socio-demographic variables like gender, profession, age, place of work, department of work and certain psychological variables like poor social support, self-efficacy were found to be associated with increased reporting of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, insomnia in HCW. • There is increasing evidence which suggests that COVID-19 can be an independent risk factor for stress in HCW.
Introduction During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers in Italy have been exposed to an unprecedented pressure and traumatic events. However, no direct comparison with the general population is available so far. The aim of this study is to detail mental health outcomes in healthcare workers compared to the general population. Methods 24050 respondents completed an on-line questionnaire during the contagion peak, 21342 general population, 1295 second-line healthcare workers, and 1411 front-line healthcare workers. Depressive, anxious, post-traumatic symptoms and insomnia were assessed. Specific COVID-19 related potential risk factors were also considered in healthcare workers. Results Depressive symptoms were more frequent in the general population (28.12%) and front-line healthcare workers (28.35%) compared to the second-line healthcare workers (19.98%) groups. Anxiety symptoms showed a prevalence of 21.25% in the general population, 18.05% for second-line healthcare workers, and 20.55% for front-line healthcare workers. Insomnia showed a prevalence of 7.82, 6.58, and 9.92% for the general population, second-line healthcare workers, and front-line healthcare workers, respectively. Compared to the general population, front-line healthcare workers had higher odds of endorsing total trauma-related symptoms. Both second-line healthcare workers and front-line healthcare workers had higher odds of endorsing core post-traumatic symptoms compared to the general population, while second-line healthcare workers had lower odds of endorsing negative affect and dissociative symptoms. Higher total traumatic symptom score was associated with being a front-line healthcare worker, having a colleague infected, hospitalized, or deceased, being a nurse, female gender, and younger age. Conclusion This study suggests a significant psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Italian general population and healthcare workers. Front-line healthcare workers represent a specific at-risk population for post-traumatic symptoms. These findings underline the importance of monitoring and intervention strategies.
The Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
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