Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T15:38:11.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare professionals: A cross-sectional study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

M. Vouros ,
P. Koutoukoglou  and
E. Jelastopulu
M. Vouros*
Affiliation:
424 General Military Training Hospital, Psychiatric Dept., Thessaloniki, Greece
P. Koutoukoglou
Affiliation:
424 General Military Training Hospital, Oncology Dept., Thessaloniki, Greece
E. Jelastopulu
Affiliation:
University of Patras, School of Medicine, Dept. Of Public Health, Patras, Greece
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic was immediately realized to pose a considerable threat both to the physical, and the mental health of people. For healthcare professionals, it marks frantic work rhythms, anxiety for their patients and exposure to an invisible enemy. Those who hold administrative positions are called upon to make unprecedented decisions, facing a high degree of uncertainty. Hence, hospital staff is expected to experience severe psychological distress.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to investigate the psychological distress and possible associations with demographic characteristics, professional duties, hierarchy and predisposing factors to severe COVID-19 disease.

Methods

Online questionnaires were distributed to all employees of two hospitals in Thessaloniki, Greece, from March until May 2021. The questionnaires comprised two sections, one concerning the aforementioned purported risk factors, and another involving three psychometric scales, i.e. Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, Coronavirus Reassurance-Seeking Behaviors Scale and Obsession with COVID-19 Scale.

Results

The psychological pressure experienced by healthcare professionals was low, compared to the literature. A history of COVID-19 disease, existence of predisposing factors to severe COVID-19 illness and frequent contact with infected patients were shown to significantly increase the likelihood of psychological distress. Furthermore, an age of 30-34 years, a higher level of education, existence of infected family members and non-vaccination were identified as possible risk factors.

Conclusions

Contrary to previous research results, our sample did not experience severe COVID-19-related psychological distress. Nevertheless, emphasis should be placed on initiatives to support the mental health of this professional group, as many of them do struggle with psychological difficulties.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

Healthcare professionalsDemographic characteristicspsychological distressCovid-19
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S503
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
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.