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The intensity of coronavirus anxiety and its associations with depressive symptoms and burnout among Polish nurses and firefighters: a preliminary cross-sectional study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

H. Sienkiewicz-Jarosz*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1st Department Of Neurology, Warsaw, Poland
Ł. Mokros
Affiliation:
Medical University of Lodz, Department Of Clinical Pharmacology, Łodz, Poland
J. Januszczak
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1st Department Of Psychiatry, Warsaw, Poland
Ł. Baka
Affiliation:
Central Institute for Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Department Of Social Psychology, Warsaw, Poland
P. Świtaj
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1st Department Of Psychiatry, Warsaw, Poland
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Nurses and firefighters are professions characterized by exposure to high occupational stress.

Objectives

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the intensity of coronavirus anxiety and its associations with depressive symptoms and burnout in samples of Polish nurses and firefighters during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Fifty nurses and 55 firefighters were recruited for the study. Respondents were administered the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI). Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data.

Results

Nurses scored significantly higher than firefighters on the CAS (M = 2.76, SD = 4.18 vs. M = 1.15, SD = 2.24; p < 0.05), the CESD-R (M = 11.64, SD = 10.80 vs. M = 5.85, SD = 7.34; p < 0.01) and both dimensions of the OLBI, i.e. exhaustion (M = 2.38, SD = 0.56 vs. M = 1.91, SD = 0.55; p < 0.001) and disengagement from work (M = 2.28, SD = 0.48 vs. M = 1.93, SD = 0.43; p < 0.001). In the both study groups coronavirus anxiety significantly correlated with depressive symptoms and exhaustion, and only in nurses also with disengagement from work.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that coronavirus anxiety was more pronounced in nurses than in firefighters. The findings provide preliminary evidence for the positive associations of coronavirus anxiety with depressive symptoms and burnout in both groups.

Disclosure

The study was supported by the grant of the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) No. I.PB.08 “Occupational burnout and depression in professions with exposure to high levels of occupational stress: determinants, prevalence, interrelations a

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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