• Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2021

    Health Care Workers' Mental Health During the First Weeks of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in Switzerland-A Cross-Sectional Study.

    • Sonja Weilenmann, Jutta Ernst, Heidi Petry, Monique C Pfaltz, Onur Sazpinar, Samuel Gehrke, Francesca Paolercio, Roland von Känel, and Tobias R Spiller.
    • Department of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
    • Front Psychiatry. 2021 Jan 1; 12: 594340.

    AbstractObjective: The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic poses various challenges for health care workers (HCWs). This may affect their mental health, which is crucial to maintain high quality medical care during a pandemic. Existing evidence suggests that HCWs, especially women, nurses, frontline staff, and those exposed to COVID-19 patients, are at risk for anxiety and depression. However, a comprehensive overview of risk and protective factors considering their mutual influence is lacking. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring HCWs' mental health during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Switzerland, investigating the independent effect of various demographic, work- and COVID-related factors on HCWs' mental health. Methods: In an exploratory, cross-sectional, nation-wide online survey, we assessed demographics, work characteristics, COVID-19 exposure, and anxiety, depression, and burnout in 1,406 HCWs during the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Switzerland. Network analysis was used to investigate the associations among the included variables. Results: Women (compared to men), nurses (compared to physicians), frontline staff (compared to non-frontline workers), and HCWs exposed to COVID-19 patients (compared to non-exposed) reported more symptoms than their peers. However, these effects were all small. Perceived support by the employer independently predicted anxiety and burnout after adjustment for other risk factors. Conclusion: Our finding that some HCWs had elevated levels of anxiety, depression, and burnout underscores the importance to systematically monitor HCWs' mental health during this ongoing pandemic. Because perceived support and mental health impairments were negatively related, we encourage the implementation of supportive measures for HCWs' well-being during this crisis.Copyright © 2021 Weilenmann, Ernst, Petry, Pfaltz, Sazpinar, Gehrke, Paolercio, von Känel and Spiller.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…