TY - JOUR
TI - Hospital workforce mental reaction to the pandemic in a low COVID-19 burden setting: a cross-sectional clinical study
AU - Alexopoulos, P.
AU - Roukas, D.
AU - Efkarpidis, A.
AU - Konstantopoulou, G.
AU - Soldatos, R.
AU - Karaivazoglou, K.
AU - Kontogianni, E.
AU - Assimakopoulos, K.
AU - Iliou, T.
AU - Εconomou, P.
AU - Gourzis, P.
AU - Politis, A.
JO - European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
PY - 2022
VL - 272
TODO - 1
SP - 95-105
PB - Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
SN - 0940-1334, 1433-8491
TODO - 10.1007/s00406-021-01262-y
TODO - anxiety;  cross-sectional study;  depression;  hospital personnel;  human;  pandemic;  psychology;  questionnaire;  therapy, Anxiety;  COVID-19;  Cross-Sectional Studies;  Depression;  Humans;  Pandemics;  Personnel, Hospital;  Surveys and Questionnaires
TODO - ΤheCOVID-19 pandemic has mental health implications for both healthcare workforces and general population, particularly in regions heavily hit by the crisis. Τhe study aimed (i) to investigate anxiety- and depression severity differences between staff of a COVID-19 treatment unit (N = 84) and a hospital without such a unit (N = 55) in comparison to participants of a convenience general population online survey (N = 240) and (ii) to explore relations between such symptoms and hospital staff reaction to COVID-19 in a low COVID-19 burden setting. Anxiety was studied with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item in hospital workforces and with the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) in online survey participants. Depression symptoms were assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 in hospital employees and the HADS in the online survey sample. Symptoms were classified as absent/minimal, borderline abnormal or indicating clinical caseness. Staff reaction to COVID-19 was tapped with a 9-item-questionnaire and the 22-item Impact of Event Scale-revised (IES-R). Proper tests for differences and stepwise ordered logistic regression models were employed. Anxiety- and depression severity was higher in hospital workforces than in online survey participants (P < 0.05). Anxiety was more severe in frontline- compared to backstage employees (P < 0.001) was inversely correlated with age (P = 0.011) and positively with avoidance (P = 0.028). Both anxiety and depression symptoms related to intrusion symptoms (P < 0.001). Regarding the relatively long data collection period, an inverse association between crisis duration and depression symptoms was detected (P = 0.025). These observations point to the urgent need for distress-mitigating interventions for hospital workforces even in low COVID-19 burden settings. © 2021, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
ER -