• Nicholas W S Chew, Grace K H Lee, Benjamin Y Q Tan, Mingxue Jing, Yihui Goh, Nicholas J H Ngiam, Yeo Leonard L L LLL Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, N, Aftab Ahmad, Ahmed Khan Faheem F Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, Singapore., Napolean Shanmugam Ganesh G Department of Neurology, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, Singapore., Arvind K Sharma, R N Komalkumar, P V Meenakshi, Kenam Shah, Bhargesh Patel, Chan Bernard P L BPL Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore., Sibi Sunny, Bharatendu Chandra, Ong Jonathan J Y JJY Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore., Prakash R Paliwal, Wong Lily Y H LYH Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore., Renarebecca Sagayanathan, Jin Tao Chen, Alison Ying Ying Ng, Teoh Hock Luen HL Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore., Georgios Tsivgoulis, Cyrus S Ho, Roger C Ho, and Vijay K Sharma.
• Department of Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore.
• Brain Behav. Immun. 2020 Aug 1; 88: 559-565.

ObjectiveSince the declaration of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak as pandemic, there are reports on the increased prevalence of physical symptoms observed in the general population. We investigated the association between psychological outcomes and physical symptoms among healthcare workers.MethodsHealthcare workers from 5 major hospitals, involved in the care for COVID-19 patients, in Singapore and India were invited to participate in a study by performing a self-administered questionnaire within the period of February 19 to April 17, 2020. Healthcare workers included doctors, nurses, allied healthcare workers, administrators, clerical staff and maintenance workers. This questionnaire collected information on demographics, medical history, symptom prevalence in the past month, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) instrument. The prevalence of physical symptoms displayed by healthcare workers and the associations between physical symptoms and psychological outcomes of depression, anxiety, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were evaluated.ResultsOut of the 906 healthcare workers who participated in the survey, 48 (5.3%) screened positive for moderate to very-severe depression, 79 (8.7%) for moderate to extremely-severe anxiety, 20 (2.2%) for moderate to extremely-severe stress, and 34 (3.8%) for moderate to severe levels of psychological distress. The commonest reported symptom was headache (32.3%), with a large number of participants (33.4%) reporting more than four symptoms. Participants who had experienced symptoms in the preceding month were more likely to be older, have pre-existing comorbidities and a positive screen for depression, anxiety, stress, and PTSD. After adjusting for age, gender and comorbidities, it was found that depression (OR 2.79, 95% CI 1.54-5.07, p = 0.001), anxiety (OR 2.18, 95% CI 1.36-3.48, p = 0.001), stress (OR 3.06, 95% CI 1.27-7.41, p = 0.13), and PTSD (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.12-4.35, p = 0.023) remained significantly associated with the presence of physical symptoms experienced in the preceding month. Linear regression revealed that the presence of physical symptoms was associated with higher mean scores in the IES-R, DASS Anxiety, Stress and Depression subscales.ConclusionsOur study demonstrates a significant association between the prevalence of physical symptoms and psychological outcomes among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. We postulate that this association may be bi-directional, and that timely psychological interventions for healthcare workers with physical symptoms should be considered once an infection has been excluded.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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