Psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health professionals
Keywords:
burnout, coronavirus infections, professional, mental health.Abstract
Introduction: The fast spread of COVID-19 around the world caused health systems collapse, which contributed to increase fatigue suffered by health workers, physical as well as mental. Objective: To determine psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on health professionals.
Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was carried out in 145 subjects who worked as health professionals from January to December 2021. This information was collected in an online form. Age, sex, medical record, institution, work category, daily access to COVID-19 information, direct assistance to infected patients and close people death was considered parameters in the applied form. Mann-Whitney U test was applied to find differences in the overall reported score.
Results: 62.1% of health workers presented a High Psychological Impact, 70.0% were medical and nursing staff; 62.2% accessed to information about COVID-19 for more than 2 hours daily, 64.4% assisted infected patients directly, and 35.6% experienced close people death due to the pandemic. Being a woman (p= 0,008), accessing information about COVID-19 for more than 2 hours daily (p= 0,026), directly assisting infected patients (p= 0,033), and the death of close people (p= 0,018) had statistically significant differences in psychological impact.
Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with a high psychological impact in health workers.
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References
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24. Wu Y, Wang J, Luo C, Hu S, Lin X, Anderson A, et al. A Comparison of Burnout Frequency Among Oncology Physicians and Nurses Working on the Frontline and Usual Wards During the COVID-19 Epidemic in Wuhan, China. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020; 60(1):e60-5. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.008
25. Larrotta-Castillo R, Méndez-Ferreira A, Mora-Jaimes C, Córdoba-CastañedA M, Duque-Moreno J. Pérdida, duelo y salud mental en tiempos de pandemia. Revista de la Universidad Industrial de Santander. 2020 [acceso: 10/03/2023]; 52(2):179-80. Disponible en: https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3438/343864478019/html/
26. Ceberio M. COVID-19: La muerte en soledad - Aislamiento, miedo al contagio y duelo en pandemia. AJAYU. 2021; 19(2):248-68. DOI: 10.35319/ajayu.192180
2. Mrklas K, Shalaby R, Hrabok M, Gusnowski A, Vuong W, Surood S, et al. Prevalence of Perceived Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in Health Care Workers and Other Workers in Alberta During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Survey. JMIR Ment Health. 2020; 7(9):e22408. DOI: 10.2196/22408
3. Low Z, Yeo K, Sharma V, Leung G, McIntyre R, Guerrero A, et al. Prevalence of burnout in medical and surgical residents: A meta-analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019; 16:1479. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16091479
4. Oprisan A, Baettig-Arriagada E, Baeza-Delgado C, Martí-Bonmatí L. Prevalencia y factores de desgaste profesional en radiólogos durante la pandemia COVID-19. Radiologia. 2022; 64(2):119-27. DOI: 10.1016/j.rx.2021.09.003
5. Goldberg D, Williams P. A user's guide to the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor: NFER-Nelson; 1988.
6. Andrich D, Schoubroeck LV. The General Health Questionnaire: a psychometric analysis using latent trait theory. Psychol Med. mayo de 1989;19(2):469-85. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291700012502
7. García Viniegras CRV. Manual para la utilización del cuestionario de salud general de Goldberg: Adaptación cubana. Revista Cubana de Medicina General Integral. 1999 [acceso: 10/02/2023]; 15(1):88-97. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0864-21251999000100010&nrm=iso
8. Iraurgi I. Evaluación de resultados clínicos (II): Las medidas de la significación clínica o los tamaños del efecto. Norte de salud mental. 2009 [acceso: 10/02/2023]; 34:94-110. Disponible en: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267779074_Evaluacion_de_resultados-_clinicos_II_Las_medidas_de_la_significacion_clinica_o_los_tamanos_del_efecto
9. Organización Mundial de la Salud. World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects .Washington: OMS; 2001. [acceso: 10/02/2023]. Disponible en: http://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/79(4)373.pdf
10. Ramírez FB, Misol RC, Alonso M del CF, García JLT. Salud mental en epidemias: una perspectiva desde la Atención Primaria de Salud española. Atención Primaria. 2020; 52:93-113. DOI: 10.1016/j.aprim.2020.09.004
11. Iglesias SMM. Reflexiones sobre el burnout de los profesionales de atención primaria tras la pandemia. Atención Primaria. 2022; 54(6):102314. DOI: 10.1016/j.aprim.2022.102314
12. Arpacioglu S, Gurler M, Cakiroglu S. Secondary Traumatization Outcomes and Associated Factors Among the Health Care Workers Exposed to the COVID-19. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2021; 67(1):84-9. DOI: 10.1177/0020764020940742
13. Cipolotti L, Chan E, Murphy P, van Harskamp N, Foley JA. Factors contributing to the distress, concerns, and needs of UK Neuroscience health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychol Psychother. 2021; 94(Suppl 2):e12298. DOI: 10.1111/papt.12298
14. Giusti EM, Pedroli E, D'Aniello GE, Stramba Badiale C, Pietrabissa G, Manna C, et al. The Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Health Professionals: A Cross-Sectional Study. Front Psychol. 2020; 11:1684. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01684
15. Silva-Gomes RN, Silva-Gomes VT. Pandemia de la COVID-19: síndrome de Burnout en profesionales sanitarios que trabajan en hospitales de campaña en Brasil. Enferm Clin. 2021; 31(2):128-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.enfcli.2020.10.011
16. González-Anglada MI, Garmendia-Fernández C, Sanmartin-Fenollera P, Martín-Fernández J, García-Pérez F, Huelmos-Rodrigo AI. Impacto de la pandemia COVID-19 en la formación sanitaria especializada en un centro docente. J Healthc Qual Res. 2022; 37(1):12-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhqr.2021.07.006
17. Macía-Rodríguez C, Andreu-Ansola J, Alejandre de Oña A, Martín-Iglesias D, Montaño-Martínez A, Moreno-Díaz J. Aumento del síndrome de burnout en los adjuntos de Medicina Interna durante la pandemia de COVID-19. Rev Clin Esp. 2023; 223(5):316-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.rce.2022.12.009
18. Esteban-Sepúlveda S, Terradas-Robledo R, Castro-Ribeiro T, García-Pagès E, Sobregrau-Sangrà P, Lacueva-Pérez L. Pandemia COVID-19 sobre profesionales sanitarios en un hospital de tercer nivel en España: cambios laborales durante la primera ola, salud mental a los 4 meses y seguimiento a los 9 meses. Enferm Clin. 2022; 32(3):143-51. DOI: 10.1016/j.enfcli.2021.12.009
19. Zarocostas J. How to fight an infodemic. Lancet. 2020; 395(10225):676. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30461-X
20. Alfonso-Sánchez I, Fernández-Valdés M. Comportamiento informacional, infodemia y desinformación durante la pandemia de COVID-19. Anales de la Academia de Ciencias de Cuba. 2020 [acceso: 10/03/2023]; 10(2):[aprox. 7 pantallas]. Disponible en: http://www.revistaccuba.cu/index.php/revacc/article/view/882
21. Sanz Valero J. Enfermedad por coronavirus: pandemia e infodemia. Hospital a Domicilio. 2022; 6(1):5-9. DOI: 10.22585/hospdomic.v6i1.156
22. Danet Danet A. Impacto psicológico de la COVID-19 en profesionales sanitarios de primera línea en el ámbito occidental. Una revisión sistemática. Med Clin (Barc). 2021; 156(9):449-58. DOI: 10.1016/j.medcli.2020.11.009
23. Man MA, Toma C, Motoc NS, Necrelescu OL, Bondor CI, Chis AF, et al. Disease Perception and Coping with Emotional Distress During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey Among Medical Staff. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(13):4899. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17134899
24. Wu Y, Wang J, Luo C, Hu S, Lin X, Anderson A, et al. A Comparison of Burnout Frequency Among Oncology Physicians and Nurses Working on the Frontline and Usual Wards During the COVID-19 Epidemic in Wuhan, China. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020; 60(1):e60-5. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.008
25. Larrotta-Castillo R, Méndez-Ferreira A, Mora-Jaimes C, Córdoba-CastañedA M, Duque-Moreno J. Pérdida, duelo y salud mental en tiempos de pandemia. Revista de la Universidad Industrial de Santander. 2020 [acceso: 10/03/2023]; 52(2):179-80. Disponible en: https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3438/343864478019/html/
26. Ceberio M. COVID-19: La muerte en soledad - Aislamiento, miedo al contagio y duelo en pandemia. AJAYU. 2021; 19(2):248-68. DOI: 10.35319/ajayu.192180
Published
2023-11-04
How to Cite
1.
Nápoles-Zaldivar Y, Nodarse-Palacios IM, Riverón-Carralero WJ, Lorenzo-González SC, Góngora-Gómez O. Psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health professionals. Rev Cubana Med Milit [Internet]. 2023 Nov. 4 [cited 2025 Jan. 8];52(4):e02303047. Available from: https://revmedmilitar.sld.cu/index.php/mil/article/view/3047
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