RESEARCH ARTICLE
Stress, Depression, Anxiety, and Burnout among Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study in a Tertiary Centre
Mohammad J. Jaber1, *, Ahmad M. AlBashaireh2, Mohammad H. AlShatarat3, Ola M. Alqudah4, Susanna E. Du Preez5, Khalid S. AlGhamdi5, Hind M. AlTmaizy6, Mohammad A. Abo Dawass7
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 16
E-location ID: e187443462203140
Publisher ID: e187443462203140
DOI: 10.2174/18744346-v16-e2203140
Article History:
Received Date: 30/11/2021Revision Received Date: 4/1/2022
Acceptance Date: 18/1/2022
Electronic publication date: 27/04/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Healthcare workers have been known to suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues as a result of their profession. Healthcare professionals were already vulnerable to mental health issues prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now they are even more prone to stress and frustration.
Objective:
The study aimed to assess stress, depression, anxiety, and burnout among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it assessed the relationship between stress, depression, anxiety, burnout, and COVID-19 related stress.
Methods:
A cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlative design was adopted to assess stress, depression, anxiety, and burnout among healthcare workers and determine the relationship among these variables during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results:
The response rate was 87.6% (831 out of 949), the majority of the participants were nurses (87.4%), and 38.4% were working in inpatient settings. The means of COVID-19 related anxiety (17.38 ± 4.95) and burnout (20.16 ± 6.33) were high and tended to be in the upper portion of the total scores. Participants reported moderate to extremely severe levels of stress (26.5%), anxiety (55.8%), and depression (37.2%). Males reported a higher level of stress (16.59 ± 10.21 vs. 13.42 ± 9.98, p = 0.002) and depression (14.97 ± 10.98 vs. 11.42 ± 10.56, p = 0.001). COVID-19 related anxiety was significantly correlated with participants’ professions (p = 0.004). Burnout (p = 0.003) and depression (p = 0.044) were significantly correlated with the participants’ working area. Significant positive correlations were found between stress, depression, anxiety, burnout, and COVID-19 related stress.
Conclusion:
Healthcare workers may experience considerable psychologic distress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic due to providing direct patient care, quarantine, or self-isolation. Healthcare workers who were at high risk of contracting COVID-19 appeared to have psychological distress, burnout, and probably, chronic psychopathology. Frontline staff, especially nurses, were at higher risk of showing higher levels of psychological and mental health issues in the long term.
